Freud's Defense mechanisms

Repression

Pushing painful or unacceptable thoughts and memories into the unconscious without realizing it. Example: A person cannot remember a traumatic childhood event.

Denial

Refusing to accept a painful or threatening reality. Example: Someone with a serious illness insists that nothing is wrong.

Projection

Attributing your own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or impulses to someone else. Example: Someone who is jealous accuses their partner of being jealous.

Displacement

Redirecting emotions from the original source toward a safer person or object. Example: Angry at your teacher, you go home and yell at your sibling.

Regression

Returning to behaviors from an earlier stage of development when stressed. Example: A stressed child begins sucking their thumb again.

Rationalization

Creating a reasonable-sounding excuse to justify an unacceptable behavior or feeling. Example: After failing a test, a student says the test was unfair instead of admitting they did not study.

Reaction Formation

Behaving in the opposite way of your true unacceptable feelings. Example: Someone who strongly dislikes another person acts overly friendly toward them.

Sublimation

Channeling unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable or productive activities. Example: Someone with aggressive impulses becomes a boxer.

Identification

Reducing anxiety by adopting the characteristics or behaviors of another person. Example: A bullied student begins acting like the person who bullies them.

Intellectualization

Using logic and facts to avoid dealing with uncomfortable emotions. Example: After receiving bad medical news, someone focuses only on statistics instead of their feelings.