Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
Acting Out
Emotional conflict is dealt with through actions rather than addressing or communicating feelings
(Ex. Instead of talking about feeling neglected, a person will get into trouble to seek & receive attention)
Compensation
Enables one to make up for perceived deficiencies
Ex. A short man assumes cocky, overbearing manner
Conversion
Repressed urge is expressed disguised as a disturbance of body function, usually of the sensory, voluntary nervous system
(Ex. Pain, deafness, blindness, paralysis, convulsions, tics)
Decompensation
Deterioration of existing defenses; resulting in progressive loss of normal functioning and/or worsening of psychiatric symptoms
Denial
Primitive defense;
Inability to acknowledge true significance of thoughts, feelings, wishes, behavior, or external reality factors that are consciously intolerable
Devaluation
Person attributes exaggerated negative qualities to self or others
Frequently used by persons with borderline personality
The split of primitive idealization
Dissociation
A process that enables a person to split mental functions in a manner that allows them to express forbidden or unconscious impulses without taking responsibility for the action
They are unable to remember the disowned behavior or it is not experienced as their own
I.e. pathologically expressed as fugue states (sudden loss of awareness), amnesia, dissociative neurosis (depersonalization or day dreaming)
Displacement
Directing an impulse, wish, or feeling toward a person or situation that is not its real object
Permits expression in a less threatening situation
(Ex. Man mad at his boss goes home and yells at his kids)
Idealization
Overestimation of an admired aspect or attribute of another
Identification
Universal mechanism whereby a person patterns themself after a significant other
Plays a major role in personality development, especially superego development
Identification with the Aggressor
Mastering anxiety by identifying with a powerful aggressor to counteract feelings of helplessness and to feel powerful oneself
(Ex. Abused child may bully others at school)
Incorporation
Primitive mechanism in which a psychic representation of a person or parts of a person are figuratively ingested
Inhibition
Loss of motivation to engage in certain activities avoided because it might stir up conflict over forbidden impulses
Enables delay of gratification from pleasurable activities
(Ex. Desire to hit someone when you’re angry)
Introjection
Converse of projection
Loved or hated external objects are symbolically absorbed within the self
(Ex. unconscious, unacceptable hatred is turned toward self)
Intellectualization
Avoid uncomfortable emotions by focusing on facts and logic
Emotional aspects are completely ignored as being irrelevant
Jargon and complex terminology is often used to place focus on words rather than emotions
Isolation of Affect
Unacceptable impulse, idea, or act is separated from its original memory source
Removing the original emotional charge associated with it
Projection
Primitive defense
Attributing one’s disowned attitudes, wishes, feelings, and urges onto some external object or person
(Ex. Man cheating on wife will become suspicious of her, assuming acts of infidelity)
Projective identification
A form of projection utilized by persons with Borderline Personality Disorder
Unconsciously perceiving others’ behavior as a reflection of one’s own identity
Rationalization
Third line of defense
Giving believable explanation for irrational behavior
Motivated by unacceptable, unconscious wishes or by defenses used to cope with such wishes
Reaction Formation
Person adopts affects, ideas, attitudes, or behaviors that are opposite of those they harbor consciously or unconsciously
(Ex. Excessively sweet to mask unconscious anger)
Regression
Partial or symbolic return to more infantile patterns of reacting or thinking
Can be in service to Ego
(Ex. Dependency during illness)
Repression
Key mechanism
Expressed clinically by amnesia or symptomatic forgetting serving to banish unacceptable ideas, fantasies, affects, or impulses from consciousness
Splitting
Associated with Borderline Personality Disorder
Person perceives self and others as “all good” or “all bad”
Serves to protect the good objects
Cannot integrate the good and bad in people
Sublimation
Potentially maladaptive feelings or behaviors are diverted into socially acceptable, adaptive channels
(Ex. A person who has angry feelings channels them into athletics)
Substitution
Unattainable or unacceptable goal, emotion, or object is replaced by one more attainable or acceptable
Symbolization
A mental representation stands for some other thing, class of things, or attribute
Underlies dream formation and some other symptoms (such as conversion reactions, obsessions, compulsions) with a link between the latent meaning of the symptom and the symbol
Usually unconscious
Turning against Self
Defense to deflect hostile aggression or other unacceptable impulses from another to self
Undoing
A person uses words or actions to symbolically reverse or negate unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or actions
(Ex. A person compulsively washing hands to deal with obsessive thoughts)
