Ego Defenses (First Aid) Flashcards
Expressing unacceptable feelings and thoughts through actions
Acting out
Separating feelings from ideas and events
Isolation
Temporary drastic change in personality, memory, consciousness, or motor behavior to avoid any emotional stress
Dissociation
Transferring avoided ideas and feelings to a neutral person or object
Displacement
Modeling behavior after another person who is more powerful
Identification
Avoiding awareness of some painful reality
Denial
Partially remaining at a more childish level of development
Fixation
Expressing negativity and performing below what is expected as an indirect show of opposition
Passive aggresion
Attributing an unacceptable internal impulse to an external source
Projection
Involuntarily withholding an idea or feeling from conscious awareness
Repression
Believing that people are either all good or all bad at different times due to intolerance of ambiguity. Commonly seen in borderline personality disorder.
Splitting
Replacing a warded-off idea or feeling by an emphasis on its opposite
Reaction formation
Proclaiming logical reasons for actions actually performed for other reasons, usually to avoid self-blame
Rationalization
Turning back the maturational clock and going back to earlier modes of dealing with the world
Regression
Alleviating negative feelings via unsolicited generosity
Altruism
