Defensive Mechanisms

Question 1

Compensation

Answer 1

Enables one to make up for real or fancied deficiencies. A person who stutters becomes a very expressive writer.
Ex: A short man assumes a cocky, overbearing manner.

Question 2

Conversion

Answer 2

Repressed urge is expressed disguised as a disturbance of body function, usually of the sensory, voluntary nervous system (as pain, deafness, blindness, paralysis, convulsions, tics).

Question 3

Decompensation

Answer 3

Deterioration of existing defenses.

Question 4

Devaluation

Answer 4

A defense mechanism frequently used by persons with borderline personality organization in which a person attributes exaggerated negative qualities to self or another. It is the split of primitive idealization.

Question 5

Dissociation

Answer 5

A process that enables a person to split mental functions in a manner that allows him or her to express forbidden or unconscious impulses without taking responsibility for the action, either because he or she is unable to remember the disowned behavior, or because it is not experienced as his or her own; that is, it is pathologically expressed as fugue states, amnesia, or dissociative neurosis, or normally expressed as daydreaming.

Question 6

Displacement

Answer 6

Directing an impulse, wish or feeling toward a person or situation that is not its real object, thus permitting expression in a less threatening situation;
Ex: A man angry at his boss kicks his dog.

Question 7

Denial

Answer 7

Inability to acknowledge true significance of thoughts, feelings, wishes, behavior or external reality factors that are consciously intolerable.

Question 8

Acting out

Answer 8

Emotional conflict is dealt with through actions rather than feelings; Instead of talking about feeling neglected, a person will get into trouble to get attention.

Question 9

Idealization

Answer 9

Overestimation of an admired aspect or attribute of another.

Question 10

Identification

Answer 10

Universal mechanism whereby a person patterns himself or herself after a significant other. It plays a major role in personality development, especially superego development.

Question 11

Identification with the aggressor

Answer 11

Mastering anxiety by identifying with a powerful aggressor (such as an abusing parent) to counteract feelings of helplessness and to feel powerful oneself. Usually involves behaving like the aggressor.
Ex: Abusing others after one has been abused oneself.

Question 12

Incorporation

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Introjection

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Inhibition

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Intellectualization

Answer 15

Where the person avoids uncomfortable emotions by focusing on facts and logic. Emotional aspects are completely ignored as being irrelevant. Jargon is often used as a device of intellectualization. By using complex terminology, the focus becomes on the words rather than the emotions.

Question 16

Insolation of affect

Answer 16

Unacceptable impulse, idea, act is separated from its original memory source, thereby removing the original emotional charge associated with it.

Question 17

Projection

Answer 17

Primitive defense, attributing one’s disowned attitudes, wishes, feelings and urges to some external object or person. Ex: Someone cheater accuses their partner of also cheating.

Question 18

Projective Identification

Answer 18

A form of projection utilized by persons with Borderline Personality Disorder. Unconsciously perceiving other’s behavior as a reflection of one’s own identity.

Question 19

Rationalization

Answer 19

Third line of defense; not unconscious. Giving believable explanation for irrational behavior motivated by unacceptable unconscious wishes or by defenses used to cope with such wishes.

Question 20

Reaction Formation

Answer 20

Person adopts affects, ideas, attitudes or behaviors that are opposites of those he or she harbors consciously or unconsciously. Excessive moral zeal masking strong, but repressed, asocial impulses or being excessively sweet to mask unconscious anger.

Question 21

Regression

Answer 21

Partial or symbolic return to more infantile patterns of reacting or thinking. Can be in service to ego. Ex: Dependency during illness.

Question 22

Repression

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Splitting

Answer 23

Defensive mechanism associated with Borderline Personality Disorder in which a person perceives self and others as “all good” or “all bad.” Splitting services to protect the good objects. A person cannot integrate the good and the bad in people.

Question 24

Sublimation

Answer 24

Potentially maladaptive feelings or behaviors are diverted into socially acceptable, adaptive channels;
Ex: A person who has angry feelings channels them into athletics.

Question 25

Substitution

Answer 25

Unattainable or unacceptable goal, emotion or object is replaced by one more that is more attainable or acceptable.

Question 26

Symbolization

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Turning against self

Answer 27

Defense to deflect hostile aggression or other unacceptable impulses from another to self.

Question 28

Undoing

Answer 28

A person uses words or actions to symbolically reverse or negate unacceptable thoughts, feelings or actions; Ex: A person compulsively washing hands to deal with obsessive thoughts.