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