Defense Mechanisms

Sublimations

A change in the aim or object of an instinct (drive). Instinct is turned into new and useful channels and allowed expression in a more acceptable way.

Sublimations example

A man who has strong competitive or aggressive drives channels this energy into building up a successful business.

Repression

Unconscious, purposeful forgetting of internal urges or external events that would be painful if conscious.

Repression example 

A woman is unable to enjoy sex after having pushed out of awareness a traumatic sexual incident from childhood.

Projection

Painful or objectionable affects, wishes, attitudes or ideas are attributed to persons or things in the environment. The person is unaware that the thoughts and feelings he "sees" in others have their origin within himself.

Projection example

A woman denies her sexual feelings about a co-worker and without basis accuses him of being a flirt and wanting to seduce her.

Denial

Obvious reality factors are treated as if they did not exist. Denial is not to be confused with conscious lying.

Denial example 

A diabetic patient refuses to follow the prescribed diet because "there's nothing really wrong with me."

A psychiatric patient states, "I don't have emotional problems. I'm just here for a
rest."

Identification

Accepting another person's ideas or ideals and feeling with them as though they were a part of oneself. It is an unconscious mechanism. If done consciously, then it is imitation.

Identification example

Accepting another person's ideas or ideals and feeling with them as though they were a part of oneself. It is an unconscious mechanism. If done consciously, then it is imitation.

Undoing

The performance of acts for the purpose of neutralizing something which was done (or wished or thought) before and which was objectionable to the person.

Undoing example 

A young man sends flowers to his girl after he has had thoughts of breaking off the relationship.
A patient with an obsessive-compulsive neurosis may attempt to ward off or atone for hostility by performing some prescribed ritual.

Regression 

The ego abandons a level of psychosexual adjustment which it has achieved and returns to an earlier and more infantile level. It is a retreat from present patterns of behavior to
past patterns.

Regression example

A four-year-old child begins to suck his thumb and wet the bed shortly after the birth of a sibling.
Tears and temper tantrums in an adult under stress.

Rationalization

The ego substitutes an acceptable reason for an unacceptable one to explain a given attitude or action.

In patients with addictions, rationalization may be used to explain why a behavior that is clearly not acceptable is acceptable.

Rationalization example

A family joins an exclusive country club to show up the neighbors but convinces themselves they had to join so that the husband could make essential business contacts.

A nurse is made anxious by the self-contained, self - sufficient attitude of her patient and avoids the patient "because my other patients need me more now."

Displacement 

Affect which belongs to one event is expressed in relation to another event.

Displacement example

The boss berates an employee for a mistake. The employee explodes at his wife when dinner is 10 minutes late that evening. The wife soundly kicks the dog when he gets in her way as she is clearing the table.

Intellectualization

The reduction of all experiences to intellectual processes devoid of emotion.

Intellectualization example

A patient versed in psychiatric jargon explains his illness in terms of "disturbed parent-child relationships related to the oedipal phase."

Compensation 

Overemphasis of a type of behavior which serves to reduce tension stemming from feelings of inadequacy.

Compensation example

A young boy who does not make friends easily decides to study hard and become the best speller in his class so that he can represent his homeroom at the school spelling contest.

Reaction formation

A rigid attitude or character trait which is assumed by the personality to serve as means of preventing the emergence of a painful or undesirable attitude or trait, usually
of the opposite nature.

Reaction formation example

A young mother who is consciously unaware of her hostility toward her child becomes very overprotective and "smothering" toward her child.
A person who is excessively sweet and polite under all circumstances but possesses much unconscious hostility.

Dissociation

An isolation or splitting away from the total personality of some feeling, emotion or thought. Separation of appropriate feelings from the event.

Dissociation example

A schizophrenic patient smiles as he discusses his father's poor health, but cries bitterly when his psychiatrist is late for an appointment.

Fixation

The arresting of personality development in one or more aspects at a level short of maturity to relieve the anxieties produced in the next level of growth and development.

Fixation example 

A person who did not experience the love and security required for successful completion of the oral state spends his life looking for someone who will give him unconditional love and attention. Such a person is fixated at the oral stage of development.
Alcoholism is thought to be an example of such a fixation.

Suppression

Conscious inhibitions of thoughts, feelings, or actions.

Suppression example

An angry father refrains from spanking his son, though he would like to.
During finals week, a student decides to put school "out of my mind" to enjoy her favorite television show.

Conversion

Expression of intrapsychic conflict symbolically through physical symptoms.

Conversion example 

A student develops diarrhea on the day of an examination for which she is unprepared.

Fantasy

A conscious creation or distortion of unacceptable fears, wishes, and behaviors.

Fantasy example

A nurse fails an important examination and engages in daydreaming about her heroic efforts to save a client's life.

Restitution

Going back or attempting to restore or repair unconscious guilt feelings.

Restitution example 

The head nurse is short-tempered toward a new nurse and then lets her leave early

Symbolization

An idea or object represents another because of similarity or association between them.

Symbolization example

In a busy family, a child creates a picture of all family members on a Ferris wheel.