Defense Mechanisms: Anna Freud (Ego Psychology)

Question 1

Projection

Answer 1

primitive defense- attributing one’s disowned attitudes, wishes, feelings and urges to some external object, e.g. believing spouse is angry at the kinds when one is really angry at oneself would be an example of normal projection as opposed to paranoid delusions which are an example of pathological projection.

Question 2

Rationalization

Answer 2

third line of defense-not unconscious; giving believable explanation for irrational behavior motivated by unacceptable unconscious wishes or by defense used to cope with such wishes.

Question 3

Reaction Formation

Answer 3

person adopts affects, ideas, attitudes, and behaviors which are opposite of those he harbors consciously or unconsciously, e.g. excessive moral zeal masking strong but repressed asocial impulses or being excessively sweet or mask unconscious anger.

Question 4

Regression

Answer 4

partial or symbolic return to more infantile patters of reacting or thinking; can be in service to ego, e.g. as dependency during illness

Question 5

Sublimation

Answer 5

instinctual drives are diverted into personally, socially acceptable adaptive channels, e.g. the sadomasochism of the surgeon

Question 6

Substitution

Answer 6

unattainable or unacceptable goals, emotions, object is replaced by one or more attainable or acceptable

Question 7

Symbolization

Answer 7

some mental representation stands for some other things, class of things, or attribute; this mechanism underlies dream formation and some symptoms such as conversion reactions, obsessions, compulsions, with the link between the latent meaning of the symptom and symbols usually unconscious

Question 8

Undoing

Answer 8

something unacceptable and already done, thought, or felt is symbolically acted out in reverse (usually repetitiously) in hopes of relieving anxiety; used in obsessive compulsiveness such as pathological hand washing.

Question 9

Turning against self

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Splitting

Answer 10

defense mechanism of borderline personality organization which manifests as self or others being seen as “all good” or “all bad;” it is the process of keeping apart introjects of opposite quality resulting in an ego weakness whereby aggression does not become neutralized; this leads to selective lack of impulse control; splitting serves to protect the good objects

Question 11

Projective identification

Answer 11

a concept that describes the process of unconsciously perceiving others’ behavior as a reflection of one’s own attitudes.

Question 12

Devaluation

Answer 12

a defense mechanism frequently used by person with borderline personality organization which is the corollary of omnipotence; it is the split of primitive idealization

Question 13

Acting out

Answer 13

directing an unconscious wish or impulse toward some person or object toward whom it is really felt (e.g., anger at mother acted out by rapping women) to avoid conscious awareness of real object (overlap with displacement but used more broadly)

Question 14

Decompensation

Answer 14

deterioration of existing defenses

Question 15

Repression

Answer 15

Keystone mechanism. Expressed clinically by amnesia or symptomatic forgetting serving to banish unacceptable ideas, fantasies, affects, or impulses from consciousness s

Question 16

Compensation

Answer 16

Enables one to make up for real or fancied deficiencies, e.g. a stutterer becomes a very expressed writer or a short man assumes cocky, overbearing manner.

Question 17

Conversion

Answer 17

repressed urge is expressed disguised as disturbance of body function usually of sensory, voluntary nervous system an anesthesia pain, deafness, blindness, paralysis, convulsions, tics

Question 18

Denial

Answer 18

primitive defense: primitive defense Inability to acknowledge true significance of thoughts, feeling, wishes, behavior, or external reality factors which are consciously intolerable

Question 19

Displacement

Answer 19

directing an impulse wish or feeling toward a person or situation not its real object thus permitting expression in a less threatening situation e.g. a man angry at his boss kicks his dog.

Question 20

Dissociation

Answer 20

Process which enables person to split mental functions in a manner allowing him to express forbidden or unconscious impulses without responsibility for action either because he is unable to remember disowned behavior or because it is not experienced as his own e.g. pathologically expressed as fugue states, amnesia, dissociative neurosis or normally expressed as daydreaming.

Question 21

Idealization

Answer 21

overestimation of admired aspect or attribute of another; may be conscious or unconscious

Question 22

Identification

Answer 22

universal mechanism whereby person patterns self after significant other, plays major role in personality development especially super ego development.

Question 23

Identification with the aggressor

Answer 23

mastering anxiety by identifying with a powerful aggressor (such as an abusing parent) to counteract feelings of helplessness and feel powerful oneself; usually involves behaving like the aggressor e.g. abusing others after one has been abused oneself.

Question 24

Incorporation

Answer 24

Primitive mechanism in which psychic representation of person (or parts of person) is/are figuratively ingested.

Question 25

Inhibition

Answer 25

Loss of motivation to engage in (usually pleasurable) activity avoided because it might stir up conflict over forbidden impulses e.g. writing, learning, or work blocks of social shyness

Question 26

Introjection

Answer 26

Loved or hated external objects are symbolically absorbed within self (converse of projection) e.g. in severe depression, unconscious, unacceptable, hatred is turned toward self.

Question 27

Isolation of affect

Answer 27

Unacceptable impulse, idea or act is separated from its original memory source thereby removing original emotional charge.