Defense Mechanisms

Question 1

compensation

Answer 1

enables one to make up for real or fancied deficiencies (ie. person who stutters becomes a very expressive writer)

Question 2

Conversion

Answer 2

Repressed urge is expressed as a disturbance of body function (ie. pain, deafness, blindness, convulsions, tics)

Question 3

decompensation

Answer 3

deterioration of existing defenses

Question 4

devaluation

Answer 4

Used by personality disorder; person attributes exaggerated negative qualities to self or another. Split of primitive idealization

Question 5

dissociation

Answer 5

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, either b/c they are unable to remember the disowned behaviour, or b/c it is not experienced as his or her own

Question 6

displacement

Answer 6

directing impulse or feeling toward another, thus permitting expression less threatening (man angry at boss, kicks his dog)

Question 7

idealization

Answer 7

overestimation of an admired aspect of attribute of another

Question 8

identification

Answer 8

universal mechanism whereby a person patterns him/herself after a significant other. Major role is personality development (superego)

Question 9

identification with aggressor

Answer 9

mastering anxiety by identifying with a powerful aggressor to counteract feelings of helpless and feel powerful (abusing others after being abused)

Question 10

incorporation

Answer 10

primitive mechanism in which psychic representation of a person is (or parts of a person are) figuratively ingested

Question 11

inhibition

Answer 11

loss of motivation to engage in (usually pleasurable) actively avoided b/c it might stir up conflict over forbidden impulses (ie. writing, learning, or work block or social shyness)

Question 12

Introjection

Answer 12

loved or hated external objects symbolically absorbed within self

Question 13

intellectualization

Answer 13

person avoids uncomfortable emotions by focusing on facts and logic. Emotional aspects are completely ignored as being irrelevant. Jargon used as a device of intellectualization

Question 14

isolation of affect

Answer 14

unacceptable impulse, idea, or act separated from its original memory source; therefore removing original emotional charge associated with it

Question 15

projection

Answer 15

primitive defense; attributing one’s disowned attitudes, wishes, feelings and urges to some external object or person

Question 16

projection identification

Answer 16

projection used by personality disorder - unconsciously perceiving others behavious as a reflection of one’s own identity

Question 17

reaction formation

Answer 17

person adopts affects, ideas, attitudes, or behaviours that are opposite of those h/she harbours consciously or unconsciously

Question 18

regression

Answer 18

partial or symbolic return to infantile patterers of acting or thinking

Question 19

repression

Answer 19

key mechanism; expressed clinically by amnesia or symptomatic forgetting serving to banish unacceptable ideas, fantasies, affects, or impulses from consciousness

Question 20

splitting

Answer 20

associated with borderline personality disorder in which a person perceives self and others as “all good” or “all bad.” Splitting serves to protect good objects. A person cannot integrate the good and bad in people

Question 21

sublimation

Answer 21

potentially maladaptive feelings or behaviours are diverted into socially acceptable, adaptive channels (ie person who is angry channels into athletics)

Question 22

substitution

Answer 22

unattainable or unacceptable goal, emotion, or object replaced by one or more attainable or acceptable

Question 23

symbolization

Answer 23

mental representation stands for some other thing, class, of things or attribute. Mechanism underlies dream formation and some other symptoms (such as conversion reactions, obsessions, compulsions) with a link between latent meaning of the symptom and the symbol; usually unconscious

Question 24

turning against self

Answer 24

defense to deflect hostile aggression or other unacceptable impulses from another to self

Question 25

doing

Answer 25

a person uses words or action to symbolically reverse or negate unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or actions (ie. person compulsively washing hands to deal with obsessive thoughts)