Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
Drives (instincts) present at birth. The 2 most important drives are sex and aggression.
Id:
Defense mechanisms, judgment, relationship to reality, object relationships, developed
shortly after birth
Ego:
Conscience, empathy, and morality are formed during latency period, right vs.
wrong
Superego
______ are the way and means that the ego wards off anxiety and controls
instinctive urges and unpleasant emotions
Defense mechanisms
Characteristics of defense mechanisms
They are unconscious (except suppression), discrete, dynamic and irreversible, and may be adaptive or maladaptive
Attributing your own wishes, thoughts, or feelings onto someone else.
“I’m sure my wife is cheating on me.”
Projection
Used to avoid becoming aware of some painful aspect of reality.
“I know I do not have cancer.”
Denial:
External objects are divided into all good or all bad.
“The morning staff is perfect, the evening staff is terrible.”
Splitting:
Temporary block in thinking.
“I have known him for years but can never seem to remember his name.”
Blocking:
Return to an earlier stage of development, most immature.
“Ever since my divorce, my 5-year-old has begun to wet the bed.”
Regression:
Psychic derivatives are converted into bodily symptoms.
“Just thinking of the exam I get butterflies in my stomach
Somatization:
Features of the external world are taken and made part of the self.
“The resident physician dresses like the attending whom he admires.”
Introjection:
An emotion or drive is shifted to another that resembles the original in some aspect.
“I had to get rid of the dog since my husband kicked it every time we had an argument.”
Displacement:
An idea or feeling is withheld from consciousness; unconscious forgetting.
“I do not remember having had a dog.”
Repression:
Excessive use of intellectual processes to avoid affective expression or
experience.
“It is interesting to note the specific skin lesions which seem to arise as a consequence of my end-stage disease
Intellectualization:
Separation of an idea from the affect that accompanies it.
“As she arrived at the station to identify the body, she appeared to show no emotion.”
Isolation:
Rational explanations are used to justify unacceptable attitudes, beliefs, or
behaviors.
“I did not pass the test because it was harder this year than ever before.”
Rationalization:
An unacceptable impulse is transformed into its opposite; results in the formation of character traits.
“Listen to him tell his family he was not afraid, when I saw him crying.”
Reaction formation:
Acting out the reverse of an unacceptable behavior; consists of an act.
“I need to wash my hands whenever I have these thoughts.”
Undoing:
Behavioral or emotional outburst.
“My 10-year-old started getting into trouble right after his mother and I got
Acting out:
Permits the expression of feelings and thoughts without personal discomfort.
“So,” said the 300-pound man, “they expected me to place my head between my legs in the event of a plane crash when the best I could manage was placing my chin on my chest.”
Humor:
Impulse gratification has been achieved, but the aim or object has been changed
from unacceptable to acceptable; allows instincts to be channeled. Most mature of the defenses.
Jack the Ripper becomes a surgeon
Sublimation:
Conscious forgetting; only conscious defense mechanism.
“I would rather talk about my operation after the party is over.”
Suppression:
Splitting off of the brain from conscious awareness.
“I hardly remember getting to the hospital after my husband was hit by a car.”
Dissociation:
