Defense Mechanisms

1
Defense Mechanisms

• Cheryl Lang
• N211

2
General Concepts

• Freud
• first to identify defense mechanisms
• still one of his most relevant contributions to
  modern psychiatry
• Purpose of Defense Mechanisms
• Anxiety reduction, by reducing conscious
  awareness of threatening feelings
• Suppression is the only defense mechanism that
  remains in our conscious awareness
• All defense mechanism alter, deny or distort
  reality

3
General Concepts

• Defense Mechanism on a Continuum
• Health (adaptive) to Unhealthy (pathological)
• Everyone uses defense mechanisms to manage the
  stressors and conflicts of life.
• The frequency, intensity and duration of defense
  mechanisms assists to determine whether the
  defense mechanism is adaptive or pathological.
• Sublimation and altruism are considered to always
  be healthy

4
Healthy Defenses

• Suppression
• The only consciously used defense mechanism,
  where the person temporarily denies a concern or
  feeling. A commonly used phrase is putting it
  on the back burner.
• Example A daughter who says This is just to
  much to cope with, right now. Ill deal with him
  after my fathers funeral.

5
Healthy Defenses

• Altruism
• Anxiety is reduced through meeting the needs of
  others, such as in volunteer work.
• Example A man places his father in long-term
  care after a long struggle to keep him home with
  Alzheimers. He now volunteers with the
  Alzheimers Association.

6
Healthy Defenses

• Sublimation
• The channeling of socially unacceptable impulses
  or feelings into socially acceptable outlets
• Example A woman with frequent sexual thoughts
  and impulses becomes a romance novelist.

7
Healthy Defenses

• Compensation
• When a person put focuses on, enhances or
  attempts to build a strength to overcome or hide
  a weakness.
• Example A student who does poorly in english,
  excels in and tutors fellow students in math.

8
Healthy Defenses

• Identification
• To feel an association with, connection to, or
  desire to be like
• Example A child who decides he wants to be a
  nurse like the nurse who helped him feel better
  when he was in the hospital.

9
Healthy Defenses

• Humor
• The ability to laugh at an amusing part of a
  conflict, stressful or embarrasing situation.
• Example A person speaking of the previous
  nights alcohol use says I drunk too much.
  After the realization of their statement says
  Oops that was a freudian slip and laughs.

10
Intermediate Defenses

• Repression

11
Intermediate Defenses

• Displacement

12
Intermediate Defenses

• Reaction Formation

13
Intermediate Defenses

• Somatization

14
Intermediate Defenses

• Rationalization

15
Intermediate Defenses

• Conversion

16
Intermediate Defenses

• Introjection

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Immature Defenses

• Passive Aggression

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Immature Defenses

• Acting Out

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Immature Defenses

• Dissociation

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Immature Defenses

• Projection

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Immature Defenses

• Denial

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Immature Defenses

• Devaluation

23
Immature Defenses

• Idealization

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Immature Defenses

• Splitting