Defense Mechanisms

Front 1

Repression

Back 1

Keeping unwanted thoughts and feelings out of awareness, or unconscious (may involve the loss of memory: major repression, or lapse of memory: minor repression). Secondary repression if what is repressed was once conscious, primary repression if not. Regarded as high-level defense. -Goldstein

Hint 1

Anna Freud

Front 2

Reaction Formation

Back 2

Keeping certain impulses or feelings out of awareness by replacing them in consciousness with an opposite. -Goldstein

Hint 2

Anna Freud

Front 3

Projection

Back 3

Attributing to others unacceptable thoughts and feelings (impulses) that one has but are not conscious. Lower level defense that at its extreme may involve serious distortions of others' feelings, attitudes and behavior, thus diminishing capacity to test reality. -Goldstein

Hint 3

Anna Freud

Front 4

Isolation (of affect)

Back 4

Repression of feelings associated with particular content or of the ideas connected with certain affects. Often accompanied by experiencing the feelings in relationship to a different situation. -Goldstein

Hint 4

Anna Freud

Front 5

Undoing

Back 5

Nullifying or voiding symbolically an unacceptable or guilt-provoking act, thought or feeling, "a psychological erasure." Certain types of confession, expiation, and atonement may be undoing mechanisms. -Goldstein

Hint 5

Anna Freud

Front 6

Regression

Back 6

Return to an earlier developmental phase, level of functioning, or type of behavior in order to avoid the anxieties of the present. Behavior that has been given up recurs. The nature of the regression often is determined by fixation points during the course of development, ie, by places where the person has received too much or too little gratification. -Goldstein

Hint 6

Anna Freud

Front 7

Introjection

Back 7

Psychologically taking another object (person) into the self in order to avoid the direct expression of powerful emotions, thus protecting the object. When the object of the intense feeling is introjected, the feelings are experienced toward the self. Important mechanism in the genesis of many depressive reactions. Closely connected to identification, internalization, and incorporation. -Goldstein

Hint 7

Anna Freud

Front 8

Identification

Back 8

Modeling oneself after another. One takes the values, feelings, attitudes, and characteristics of a loved, admired, feared, or hated person. Crucial to normal personality development. But can be used to ward off anxiety and conflict as with identification with the aggressor. May be accompanied by internalization. -Goldstein

Front 9

Internalization

Back 9

Like identification, but goes beyond "taking on" characteristics, rather, involved "taking in" another person and making him or her part of the self. Also can be a normal phenomenon. Internalization a more general term (than incorporation and introjection) and is a higher level mechanism. -Goldstein

Front 10

Turning against the self

Back 10

Turning unacceptable impulses one has toward others toward the self. Reverse of projection and closely related to introjection, but one does not necessarily "take in" the object. Also plays important role in depressive moods and feelings of worthlessness. -Goldstein

Hint 10

Anna Freud

Front 11

Reversal

Back 11

Alteration of a feeling, attitude, train, relation or direction into its opposite. Difficult to distinguish from reaction formation. Reversal is more general and encompasses greater range of behaviors, not just feelings. -Goldstein

Hint 11

Anna Freud

Front 12

Sublimation

Back 12

Converting an impulse from a socially objectionable aim to a socially acceptable one while still retaining the original goal of the impulse. Most mature defense. -Goldstein

Hint 12

Anna Freud

Front 13

Intellectualization

Back 13

Warding off of unacceptable affects and impulses by thinking about them rather experiencing them directly. Similar to isolation. -Goldstein

Front 14

Rationalization

Back 14

Use of convincing reasons to justify certain ideas, feelings, or actions so as to avoid recognizing their true underlying motive, which is unacceptable. -Goldstein

Front 15

Displacement

Back 15

Shifting feelings or conflicts about one person or situation onto another. -Goldstein

Front 16

Denial

Back 16

Negation or nonacceptance of important aspects of reality or of one's own experience that one may actually perceive. May be of varying degrees and may be present in adaptive as well as severely maladaptive behavior. The more id impinges on one's ability to act appropriately in accord with reality, the more serious it will be in terms of overall personality functioning. -Goldstein

Front 17

Somatization

Back 17

Intolerable impulses or conflicts are converted into physical symptoms, which become a substitute for the unacceptable feelings or conflicts. -Goldstein

Front 18

Idealization

Back 18

The overvaluing of another person, place, family, or activity beyond what is realistic. To the degree that idealized figures inspire one or serve as models for identification, idealization can be useful mechanism in personality development and the helping process. Used defensively, can protect from anxiety associated with aggressive or competitive feelings toward a loved or feared person. The dangers are great, as idealized objects are not perceived as whom or what they are. -Goldstein

Front 19

Compensation

Back 19

Attempt to make up for what one perceives as deficits or deficiencies. -Goldstein

Front 20

Asceticism

Back 20

Moral renunciation of certain pleasures in order to avoid the anxiety and conflict associated with impulse gratification. Commonly seen in adolescents. -Goldstein

Front 21

Altruism

Back 21

Obtaining satisfaction through self-sacrificing service to others or through participation in causes as a way of dealing with unacceptable feelings and conflicts. Often utilized by adolescents. -Goldstein

Front 22

Splitting

Back 22

Keeping apart of two conscious, contradictory feeling states such as love and anger or admiration and disappointment. An individual viewed as all "good" suddenly may be seen as all "bad." Splitting protects the "good" internal and externl objects and the self from aggression. Main defense of borderline individuals. -Goldstein

Front 23

Projective identification

Back 23

When a person continues to have an impulse, generally an angry one, that at the same time, is projected onto another person, who then is feared as an enemy who must be controlled. Commonly found in borderline individuals and others with severe ego weakness. -Goldstein

Front 24

Omnipotent control and devaluation

Back 24

Display of an unrealistic, highly inflated sense of self and an exaggerated, depreciated view of others and attempts to control others totally. -Goldstein

Front 25

Devaluing

Back 25

Minimizing and dismissing with contempt.

Front 26

Inhibition

Back 26

Constriction of thought or activity to avoid thoughts or activities
that stir anxiety.