Defense & Illness Response Flashcards
Unconscious mental processes used to resolve conflict and prevent undesirable feelings (denial, dissociation, isolation of affect, etc.)
Ego Defenses
Ego Defense; avoiding the awareness or refusing to acknowledge some painful reality
Denial
Ego Defense; transferring avoided ideas and feelings to a neutral person or object (Mother yells at her child bc her husband yelled at her)
Displacement
Ego Defense; temporary, drastic change in personality, memory or motor behavior to avoid emotional stress (extreme case can be multiple personality disorder)
Dissociation
Ego Defense; partially REMAINING at a more childish level of development (adults fixated on video games)
Fixation
Ego Defense; modeling behavior after another person who is more powerful (though not necessarily admired) (abused child identifies with an abuser)
Identification
Ego Defense; separating feelings from ideas and events (describing murder in graphic detail with no emotional response)
Isolation (of affect)
Ego Defense; expressing negativity and performing below what is expected as an indirect show of opposition (disgruntled employee is repeatedly late to work)
Passive Aggression (sarcasm)
Ego Defense; attributing an unacceptable internal impulse to an external source (man who wants another woman thinks his wife is cheating on him)
Projection
Ego Defense; proclaiming logical reasons for action actually performed for other reasons to avoid self-blame (after getting fired, claiming that the job was not important anyway)
Rationalization
Ego Defense; replacing a warded-off idea/feeling by an UNCONSCIOUSLY derived emphasis on the opposite (a patient with libidinous thoughts enters a monastery)
Reaction Formation
Ego Defense; turning back maturation and going to an earlier mode of dealing with the world
Regression
Ego Defense; INVOLUNTARILY withholding an idea or feeling from conscious awareness (teenager doesn’t remember going to counseling during his parents divorce)
Repression
Ego Defense; believing that people are either all good or all bad at different times due to an intolerance of ambiguity; commonly seen in Borderline Personality Disorder (patient says all nurses are cold but that the doctors are warm and friendly)
Splitting
Ego Defense; alleviating negative feelings via unsolicited generosity (mafia boss makes large donation to charity)
Altruism
Ego Defense; appreciating the amusing nature of an anxiety-provoking situation (nervous medical student jokes about the boards)
Humor
Ego Defense; replacing an unacceptable wish with a course of action that is SIMILAR to the wish but does not conflict with one’s value system (teenager’s aggression toward his father is redirected to perform well in sports)
Sublimation
Ego Defense; CONSCIOUSLY withholding an idea or feeling from conscious awareness (choosing to not worry about the big game until it’s time to play)
Suppression
