D e f e n s e Mechanisms

My therapist still doesn't prescribe me enough medication. So I had to get this

A number of phenomena are used to aid in the maintenance of repression.  These are termed Ego
Defense Mechanisms (the terms “Mental Mechanisms” and “Defense Mechanisms” are
essentially synonymous with this).  The primary functions of these mechanisms are:
1.         to minimize anxiety
2.         to protect the ego
3.         to maintain repression
Repression is useful to the individual since:
1.         it prevents discomfort
2.         it leads to some economy of time and
effort
 
Ego Defense Mechanisms include:
 
Acting Out:                 The individual deals with
emotional conflict or internal or
external stressors by actions rather than reflections or feelings.  This
definition is broader than the original concept of the acting out of
transference feelings or wishes during psychotherapy and is intended to
include behavior arising both within and outside the transference
relationship. Defensive acting out is not synonymous with “bad behavior”
because it requires evidence that the behavior is related to emotional
conflicts.
 
Affiliation:                  The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external
stressors by turning to others for help or support.  This involves sharing
problems with others but does not imply trying to make someone else
responsible for them.
 
Aim inhibition:            Placing a limitation upon instinctual demands; accepting partial or
modified fulfillment of desires.  Examples:  (1) a person is conscious of
sexual desire but if finding it frustrating, "decides" that all that is really
 wanted in the relationship is companionship. (2) a student who originally
wanted to be a physician decides to become a physician's assistant.
 
Aim inhibition, like the other mechanisms, is neither healthful nor
pathological, desirable nor undesirable, in itself.  It may be better to have
half a loaf than no bread, but an unnecessary aim inhibition may rob one
of otherwise attainable satisfactions.
 
Note that the first example could include the mechanism of displacement,
and the second, rationalization.  Up to a point, mutual idealization can
make for a happy relationship; however, unrealistic expectations of
another person based upon this mechanism can lead to serious
disappointment.
 
Altruism:                     The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external
stressors by dedication to meeting the needs of others.  Unlike the self-
sacrifice sometimes characteristic of reaction formation, the individual
receives gratification either vicariously or from the response of others. 
 
Anticipation:               The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external
stressors by experiencing emotional reactions in advance of, or
anticipating consequences of, possible future events and considering
realistic, alternative responses or solutions.
 
Autistic Fantasy:        The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external
stressors by excessive daydreaming as a substitute for human
relationships, more effective action, or problem solving.
 
Avoidance:                 A defense mechanism consisting of refusal to encounter situations,
objects, or activities because they represent unconscious sexual or
aggressive impulses and/or punishment for those impulses; avoidance,
according to the dynamic theory, is a major defense mechanism in
phobias. [symbolization] [displacement]
 
Compensation:           Encountering failure or frustration in some sphere of activity, one
overemphasizes another.  The term is also applied to the process of over-
correcting for a handicap or limitation.  Examples:  (1) a physically
unattractive adolescent becomes an expert dancer.  (2) a youth with
residual muscle damage from poliomyelitis becomes an athlete.  (3)
Demosthenes.
 
Conversion:                Conflicts are presented by physical symptoms involving portions of the
body innervated by sensory or motor nerves.  This mechanism and
somatization are the only ones that are always pathological.  Examples:  a
man's arm becomes paralyzed after impulses to strike another  (2) regular
heavy drinking limited to weekends; (3) long periods of sobriety
 interspersed with binges of daily heavy drinking lasting for weeks or
months. [somatization]
 
Deflection:                  Also detected when the individual is in group therapy and consists of
redirecting attention to another group member.
 
Denial:                        Failing to recognize obvious implications or consequences of a thought,
act, or situation.  Examples: (1) a person having an extramarital affair
gives no thought to the possibility of pregnancy. (2) persons living near a
volcano disregard the dangers involved. (3) a disabled person plans to
return to former activities without planning a realistic program of
rehabilitation. [repression]
 
Devaluation:               The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external
stressors by attributing exaggerated negative qualities to self or others.
[idealization]
 
Displacement:            A change in the object by which an instinctual drive is to be satisfied;
shifting the emotional component from one object or idea to
another.  Examples: (1) a woman is abandoned by her fiance’; she quickly
finds another man about whom she develops the same feelings; (2) a
salesman is angered by his superior but suppresses his anger; later, on
return to his home, he punishes one of his children for misbehavior that
would usually be tolerated or ignored.
 
Displacements are often quite satisfactory and workable mechanisms; if
one cannot have steak, it is comforting to like hamburger equally well.  As
the March Hare observed, "I like what I have is the same as I have what I
like." However, the example of displaced anger illustrates a situation
which, if often repeated, could cause serious complications in the person’s
life. Conscious acceptance of a substitute with full recognition that it is a
substitute for something one wants is an analog of displacement.
[avoidance] [symbolization]
 
Dissociation:              Splitting-off a group of thoughts or activities from the main portion of
consciousness; compartmentalization. Example: a politician works
vigorously for integrity in government, but at the same time engages in a
business venture involving a conflict of interest without being consciously
hypocritical and seeing no connection between the two activities.
 
Some dissociation is helpful in keeping one portion of one's life from
interfering with another (e.g., not bringing problems home from the
office).  However, dissociation is responsible for some symptoms of
mental illness; it occurs in "hysteria" (certain somatoform and dissociative
disorders) and schizophrenia, The dissociation of hysteria involves a large
segment of the consciousness while that in schizophrenia is of numerous
small portions.  The apparent splitting of affect from content often noted
in schizophrenia is usually spoken of as dissociation of affect, though
isolation might be a better term.
 
Fixation:                     The cessation of the process of development of the personality at a stage
short of complete and uniform mature independence is known as fixation.
[regression]
 
Help-Rejecting
Complaining:              The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external
stressors by complaining or making repetitious requests for help that
disguise covert feelings or hostility or reproach toward others, which are
then expressed by rejecting the suggestions, advice, or help that others
offer.  The complaints or requests may involve physical or psychological
symptoms or life problems.
 
Humor:                       The individual deals with emotional conflict or external stressors by
emphasizing the amusing or ironic aspects of the conflict or stressors.
 
 Idealization:               Overestimation of the desirable qualities and underestimation of the
limitations of a desired object.  Examples: (1) a lover speaks in glowing
terms of the beauty and intelligence of an average-looking woman who is
not very bright.  (2) a purchaser, having finally decided between two
items, expounds upon the advantages of the one chosen. [devaluation]
 
Identification: Similar to introjection, but of less intensity and completeness. The unconscious
modeling of one's self upon another person.  One may also identify with
values and attitudes of a group.  Examples: (1) without being aware that he
is copying his teacher, a resident physician assumes a similar mode of
dress and manner with patients. (2) a school girl wants her mother to buy
her the same kind of shoes her classmates are wearing; she angrily rejects
the idea that she is trying to be like the other girls and insists that the shoes
are truly the best available and are the style she has always
wanted.  Conscious analogs of identification are intentional imitation of
others and volitional efforts to conform to a group. [incorporation]
[introjection]
 
Incorporation:            The assimilation of the object into one's own ego and/or superego.  This
is one of the earliest mechanisms utilized.  The parent becomes almost
 literally a part of the child.  Parental values, preferences, and attitudes are
acquired. [introjection] [identification]
 
Intellectualization:     The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external
stressors by the excessive use of abstract thinking or the making of
generalizations to control or minimize disturbing feelings.
 
Introjection:                The process of assimilation of the picture of an object (as the individual
conceives the object to be).  For example, when a person becomes
depressed due to the loss of a loved one, his feelings are directed to the
mental image he possesses of the loved one.
[identification] [incorporation]
 
Isolation:                    The splitting-off of the emotional components from a thought.  Example: a
medical student dissects a cadaver without being disturbed by thoughts of
death.  Isolation may be temporary (affect postponement).  Example: a
bank teller appears calm and cool while frustrating a robbery but afterward
is tearful and tremulous.
 
The mechanism of isolation is commonly over utilized by obsessive
compulsives.
 
Omnipotence:             The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external
stressors by feeling or acting as if he or she possesses special powers or
abilities and is superior to others.
 
Passive Aggression:     The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external
stressors by indirectly and unassertively expressing aggression toward
others.  There is a facade of overt compliance masking covert resistance,
resentment, or hostility.  Passive aggression often occurs in response to
demands for independent action or performance or the lack of
gratification of dependent wishes but may be adaptive for individuals in
subordinate positions who have no other way to express assertiveness
more avertly.
 
Projection:                     Attributing one's thoughts or impulses to another person.  In common
use, this is limited to unacceptable or undesirable impulses.  Examples:
(1) a man, unable to accept that he has competitive or hostile feelings
about an acquaintance, says, “He doesn’t like me.” (2) a woman, denying
to herself that she has sexual feelings about a co-worker, accuses him,
without basis, of flirt and described him as a “wolf.”
 
This defense mechanism is commonly over utilized by the paranoid.
 
A broader definition of projection includes certain operations that allow
for empathy and understanding of others.  Recognition that another
 person is lonely or sad may be based not upon having seen other
examples of loneliness or sadness and learning the outward
manifestations but upon having experienced the feelings and recognizing
automatically that another person’s situation would evoke them.
[projective identification]
 
Projective
Identification:          As in projection, the individual deals with emotional conflict or internal
or external stressors by falsely attributing to another his or her own
unacceptable feelings, impulses, or thoughts.  Unlike simple projection,
the individual does not fully disavow what is projected.  Instead, the
individual remains aware of his or her own affects or impulses but mis-
attributes them as justifiable reactions to the other person.  Not
infrequently, the individual induces the very feelings in others that were
first mistakenly believed to be there, making it difficult to clarify who did
what to whom first. [projection]
 
Rationalization:          Offering a socially acceptable and apparently more or less logical
explanation for an act or decision actually produced by unconscious
impulses.  The person rationalizing is not intentionally inventing a story to
fool someone else, but instead is misleading self as well as the
listener.  Examples: (1) a man buys a new car, having convinced himself
that his older car won't make it through the winter. (2) a woman with a
closet full of dresses buys a new one because she doesn't have anything to
wear.
 
Reaction
Formation:                  Going to the opposite extreme; overcompensation for unacceptable
impulses.Examples: (1) a man violently dislikes an employee; without
being aware of doing so, he "bends over backwards" to not criticize the
employee and gives him special privileges and advances. (2) a person with
strong antisocial impulses leads a crusade against vice. (3) a married
woman who is disturbed by feeling attracted to one of her husband's
friends treats him rudely.
 
Intentional efforts to compensate for conscious dislikes and prejudices are
sometimes analogous to this mechanism. [undoing] [restitution]
 
Regression:                By another anxiety-evading mechanism known as regression, the
personality may suffer a loss of some of the development already attained
and may revert to a lower level of adaptation and expression. [fixation]
 
Repression:                The involuntary exclusion of a painful or conflictual thought, impulse, or
memory from awareness.  This is the primary ego defense mechanism;
others reinforce it.
 
Resistance:                This defense mechanism produces a deep-seated opposition to the bringing
of repressed (unconscious) data to awareness. Through its operation, the
individual seeks to avoid memories or insights which would arouse
anxiety.
 
Restitution:                The mechanism of relieving the mind of a load of guilt by making up or
reparation (paying up with interest). [reaction formation] [undoing]
 
Self-Assertion:           The individual deals with emotional conflict or stressors by expressing his
or her feelings and thoughts directly in a way that is not coercive or
manipulative.
 
Somatization:              Conflicts are represented by physical symptoms involving parts of the
body innervated by the sympathetic and parasympathetic
system.  Example: a highly competitive and aggressive person, whose life
situation requires that such behavior be restricted, develops hypertension.
[conversion]
 
Splitting:                     This term is widely used today to explain the coexistence within the ego
of contradictory states, representative of self and others, as well as
attitudes to self and others; other individuals or the self is perceived as
"All good or all bad.
 
Sublimation:               Attenuating the force of an instinctual drive by using the energy in other,
usually constructive activities.  This definition implies acceptance of the
Libido Theory; the examples do not require it.  Sublimation is often
combined with other mechanisms, among them aim inhibition,
displacement, and symbolization.  Examples: (1) a man who is dissatisfied
with his sex life but who has not stepped out on his wife becomes very
busy repairing his house while his wife is out of town.  Thus, he has no
time for social activities. (2) a woman is forced to undertake a restrictive
diet; she becomes interested in painting and does a number of still life
pictures, most of which include fruit.
 
The conscious use of work or hobbies to divert one’s thoughts from a
problem or from a rejected wish is an analog of this. Sublimation is often a
desirable mechanism.  However, the consequences may, in addition to
preventing instinctual satisfaction, interfere with the person's life in other
ways if disproportionate time, money, or effort is used in the activity.
 
Substitution:               Through this defense mechanism, the individual secures alternative or
substitutive gratification comparable to those that would have been
employed had frustration not occurred.
 
Suppression:               Usually fisted as an ego defense mechanism but actually the conscious
analog of repression; intentional exclusion of material from
 consciousness.  At times, suppression may lead to subsequent
repression.  Examples: (1) a young man at work finds that he is letting
thoughts about a date that evening interfere with his duties; he decides not
to think about plans for the evening until he leaves work. (2) a student
goes on vacation worried that she may be failing; she decides not to spoil
her holiday by thinking of school. (3) a woman makes an embarrassing
faux pas at a party; she makes an effort to forget all about it.
 
In the first example, suppression was probably a desirable mechanism
since it permitted concentration on work and deferred dealing with plans
for the evening until a more appropriate time.  In the second instance,
suppression would have been undesirable if failing work could have been
corrected during vacation or if a realistic appraisal of probable
consequences of the school situation would have permitted battery
planning.
 
Symbolization:            An object or act represents a complex group of objects and acts, some of
which may be conflictual or unacceptable to the ego; objects or acts stand
for a repressed desire.  Examples: (1) a soldier, when asked why he
volunteered, he said, "To defend the flag." He rejects as irrelevant a
question about the purpose of the war. (2) a boy asks for a girl's hand (in
marriage).
 
As in the second illustration, symbolization is often combined with
displacement. it is one of the mechanisms usually involved in phobias.
[avoidance] [displacement]
 
 
Undoing:                     An act or communication which partially negates a previous
one.   Examples: (1) two close friends have a violent argument; when they
next meet, each act as if the disagreement had never occurred. (2) when
asked to recommend a friend for a job, a man makes derogatory comments
which prevent the friend's getting the position; a few days later, the man
drops in to see his friend and brings him a small gift.
In a conscious analog of this, Napoleon made it a practice after
reprimanding any officer to find some words of praise to say at their next
meeting. [reaction formation] [restitution]