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
