Defense Mechanisms

Front 1

Refusing to acknowledge or recognize the reality and implications of painful, anxiety-provoking experience.
A 51-year-old actress insists that she can play the role of a teenage rock star in spite of her obvious matronly appearance.

Back 1

DENIAL

Front 2

Shifting repressed feelings from where they originate to some other objects.
A baseball player, after being thrown out of the game by an umpire, kicks the water cooler in the dug out.

Back 2

DISPLACEMENT

Front 3

Separation or postponement of a feeling that normally would accompany a situation or thought.
You're talking with your friend, you hear her voice, you're nodding in agreement but you're not really there--you're physically with her, but not all there. Then your friend waves her hand in front of your face--"woohoo!!"--and you pop back into awareness!

Back 3

DISSOCIATION

Front 4

Form of denial in which the object of attention is presented as "all good" masking true negative feelings towards others.
Fred bragged to his friends that his therapist was so competent that he couldn't help but be cured of his
problem. His anxiety about his
problem went away, but the problem was still there.

Back 4

Idealization

Front 5

The unconscious modeling of one's self upon another person's behavior

Back 5

Identification

Front 6

Identifying with some idea or object so deeply that it becomes a part of that person. 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.

Back 6

Introjection

Front 7

Refocusing of aggression or emotions evoked from an external force onto one's self.

Back 7

Inversion

Front 8

Rationalizing and making generalization about anxiety provoking issues to minimize pain and anxiety.
A soldier who lost his arm in combat is refusing to deal with his feelings toward this traumatic event. He talks
about the importance of the war and shows pictures of the Hummer he was driving when he was shot. He is very
caught up in the details of his
service.

Back 8

Intellectualization

Front 9

Attributing a painful thought or idea to another person.
Cindy has a crush on the high school quarterback. He shows no interest in her, but rather than deal with her feelings toward him, she becomes
convinced that he is madly in love with her.

Back 9

Projection

Front 10

Attempting to provide a logical and rational explanation for something to avoid guilt or shame.
Student might blame a poor exam score on the instructor rather than his or her lack of preparation

Back 10

Rationalization

Front 11

Replacing of some painful or negative event with the complete opposite.

A person who is angry with a colleague actually ends up being particularly courteous and friendly towards them.

A man who is gay has a number of conspicuous heterosexual affairs and openly criticizes gays.

Back 11

Reaction formation

Front 12

Losing of some aspect of development already achieved due to undue anxiety causing a person to revert to a previously-attained stage or lower level of adaptation.
Grady, five-years-old, recently lost his only child status. A sister was born. He has suddenly taken to baby
talk and keeps asking his mother if he can breast feed like his sister.

Back 12

Regression

Front 13

Pushing a negative or painful image, though, or idea out of consciousness to avoid the associated pain. This is the primary defense mechanism

Marriet cannot remember what she was doing the previous Friday. The police show up at her door to ask her if she is ok, and if she can describe the man who threatened to kill her at knife point during an aborted bank robbery.She has no memory of this event.

Back 13

Repression

Front 14

Manifestation of emotional anxiety into physical symptoms.

Back 14

Somatization

Front 15

Repressing, dissociating, or disconnecting important feelings that are dangerous to psychic well-being. Causes person to get out of touch with his/her feelings to "fragmented self."

Back 15

Splitting

Front 16

When a person replaces one feeling or emotion for another.

Back 16

Substitution

Front 17

Mark lived in a ghetto where gun fights and deaths were common. He was so afraid of his neighborhood that he could not sleep or eat until he began
to believe that he was special to God and could not be harmed by mere guns and the thugs who carried them.

Back 17

Omnipotence