Defenses Flashcards
Primary/ Primitive defenses
preverbal; lack of reality principle, lack of appreciation for separateness and constancy of others; imagined, “magical”
-withdrawal
-denial
-omnipotent control
-primitive idealization and devaluation
-projective and introjective identification
-splitting of the ego
dissociation
withdrawal
retreat from social, interpersonal situations
denial
refuse to accept what’s happening
omnipotent control
sense that one can influence the world, with no awareness that there is a locus of control in others
primitive idealization/ devaluation
search for perfection through merger with idealized subject, then disappointment
projective identification
what’s inside is understood as coming from the outside
introjective identification
what’s outside is misunderstood as coming form inside
splitting of the ego
experiences are all good/ all bad
dissociation
results from trauma; become amnestic or totally different person
secondary/ mature defenses
deal with internal boundaries (i.e. between id, ego, superego)
- repression
- regression
- isolation
- intellectualization
- rationalization
- moralization
- compartmentalization
- undoding
- turning against the self
- displacement
- reaction formation
- reversal
- identification
- acting out
repression
motivated forgetting or ignoring
regression
unconscious reverting back to old, familiar habits of thought, feeling, behavior
isolation
isolating feelings/affect from knowing/cognition (i.e. reporting having no feelings)
intellectualization
talk about feelings in a way that is emotionless (can admit they’re angry but can’t express it)
rationalization
allows ability to make the best of a situation
moralization
seeking ways to feel it is one’s duty to pursue that a particular course, justification, morally obligated
compartmentalization
person holds two or more ideas, attitudes, behaviors that are in conflict without appreciating the contradiction, hypocrisy
undoing
unnecessary effort to counterbalance affect (guilt or shame) with an attitude or behavior that will magically erase it
turning against the self
redirecting negative affect/ attitude from external object towards self
displacement
redirection of a drive/emotion/behavior from its initial object to another
reaction formation
conversion of a negative affect into a positive one, or vice versa
reversal
shifting/ undoing positions from subject to object (i.e. dependent person taking care of someone)
identification
deliberately becoming like another person (i.e. identifying with the aggressor)
acting out
behavior driven by unconscious need to master anxiety (exhibitionism, sadism, voyeurism, masochism, counterphobia, counterhostility, counterdependency)
Defenses and their disorders:
- Schizoid- _______
- Manic- _______
- Psychopathic/ sociopathic/antisocial- ______
- Nacissistic- ______
- Paranoid- _______
- Depression- ______
- Borderline- _______
- Dissociative Disorder - _____
- Hysterical- _______
- Somaticization- _______
- Infantile personality- _______
- Obsessive- _________
- Compulsiveness- ________
- Masochism- ________
- Impulsive/ addiction - _______
- withdrawal
- denial
- omnipotent control
- primitive idealization, devaluation
- projection, reaction formation
- introjection, turning against the self
- projective identification
- dissociation
- repression, acting out
- regression
- regression
- isolation, moralization, reaction formation
- moralization, undoing, reaction formation
- moralization, turning against the self
- dispalcement
- acting out
