Ego defenses Flashcards
Acting out
Expressing unacceptable feelings and thoughts through actions.
Example: tantrums
Denial
Avoiding awareness of some painful reality.
Example: a common reaction in newly diagnosed AIDS and cancer patients
Displacement
Transferring avoided ideas and feelings to a neutral person or object (vs projection)
Example: mother yells at her child because her husband yelled at her
Dissociation
Temporary, drastic change in personality, memory, consciousness, or motor behavior to avoid emotional stress.
Example: extreme forms can result in dissociative identitiy disorder (multiple personality disorder)
Fixation
Partially remaining at a more childish level of development (vs regression).
Example: adults fixating on video games
Idealization
Expressing extremely positive thoughts of self and others while ignoring negative thoughts.
Example: a patient boasts about his physician and his accomplishments while ignoring any flaws
Identification
Modeling behavior after another person who is more powerful (though not necessarily admired).
Example: abused child later becomes a child abuser
Intellectualization
Using facts and logic to emotionally distance oneself from a stressful situation.
Example: in a therapy session, patient diagnosed with cancer focuses only on rates of survival
Isolation (of affect)
Separating feelings from ideas and events.
Example: describing murder in graphic detail with no emotional response
Passive aggression
Failing to meet the needs/expectations of other as an indirect show of opposition.
Example: disgruntled employee is repeatedly late to work
Projection
Attributing an unacceptable internal impulse to an external source (vs displacement).
Example: a man who wants to cheat on his wife accuses his wife of being unfaithful
Rationalization
Proclaiming logical reasons for actions actually performed for other reasons, usually to avoid self-blame.
Example: after getting fired, claiming that the job was not important anyway
Reaction formation
Replacing a warded-off idea or feeling by an (unconsciously derived) emphasis on its opposite (vs sublimation)
Example: a patient with libidinous thoughts enters a monastery
Regression
Involuntarily turning back the maturational clock and going back to earlier modes of dealing with the world (vs fixation).
Example: seen in children under stress such as illness, punishment, or birth of a new sibling (eg bedwetting in a previously toilet trained child when hospitalized)
Repression
Involuntarily withholding an idea or feeling from conscious awareness (vs suppression)
Example: a 20 yo does not remember going to counseling during his parents’ divorce 10 years earlier
Splitting
Believing that people are either all good or all bad at different times due to intolerance of ambiguity. Commonly seen in borderline personality disorder.
Example: a patient says that all the nurses are cold and insensitive but that all the doctors are warm and friendly
Mature defenses
- Sublimation
- Altruism
- Suppression
- Humor
Mature adults where a SASH
Sublimation
Replacing an unacceptable wish with a course of action that is similar to the wish but does not conflict with one;s value system (vs reaction formation)
Example: teenager’s aggression toward his father is redirected to perform well in sports
Altruism
Alleviating negative feelings via unsolicited generosity.
Example: mafia boss makes a large donation to charity
Suppression
Intentionally witholding an idea or feeling from conscious awareness (vs repression); temporary
Example: choosing to not worry about the big game until it is time to play
Humor
Appreciating the amusing nature of an anxiety-provoking or adverse situation
Example: nervous medical student jokes about the boards
