Ego Defenses Flashcards
(22 cards)
Expressing unacceptable feelings and thoughts through actions.
A young boy throws a temper tantrum when he does not get the toy he wants.
Acting Out - Immature Defense
Avoiding the awareness of some painful reality.
Pt is not acknowledging a piece of bad news, as thought it was never said.
Denial - Immature Defense
Redirection of emotions or impulses to a neutral person or object.
Man yells at his family when he has a bad day at work.
Teacher gets yelled at by principal, so she goes home and yells at her husbands dinner selection.
Displacement - Immature Defense
Temporary, drastic change in personality, memory, consciousness, or motor behavior to avoid emotional stress. Patient has incomplete or no memory of traumatic event. May lead to multiple personalities.
A victim of sexual abuse suddenly appears numb and detached when she is exposed to her abuser.
Dissociation - Immature Defense
Partially remaining at a more childish level of development.
Adult throwing a temper tantrum for an uncontrollable situation.
A surgeon throws a temper tantrum in the OR because the last case ran late.
Fixation - Immature Defense
Expressing extremely positive thoughts of self and others while ignoring negative thoughts.
A patient boasts about his physician and his accomplishments while ignoring any flaws.
Idealization - Immature Defense
Largely unconscious assumption of the characteristics, qualities, or traits of another person or group.
—> A child abuser was himself abused as a child.
A resident starts putting his stethoscope in his pocket like his favorite attending, instead of wearing it on his neck like before.
Identification - Immature Defense
Using facts and logic to emotionally distance oneself from a stressful situation.
In a therapy session, patient diagnosed with cancer focuses only on rates of survival.
Intellectualization - Immature Defense
Separating feelings from ideas and events.
—> A veteran can describe horrific war details without any emotion.
Isolation - Immature Defense
Demonstrating hostile feelings in a non confrontational manner; showing indirect opposition.
A disgruntled employee is repeatedly late to work but won’t admit it as a way to get back at his manager
Passive Aggression - Immature Defense
Attributing an unacceptable internal impulse to an external source
—>A man who wants to cheat on his wife accuses his wife of being unfaithful.
Projection - Immature Defense
Proclaiming logical reasons for actions actually performed for other reasons, usually to avoid self-blame.
After getting fired, claiming that the job wasn’t important anyway
Rationalization - Immature Defense
Replacing a warded-off idea or feeling with an (unconsciously derived) emphasis on its opposite.
Threatening someone you strongly dislike in an excessively friendly manner in order to hide your true feelings.
A patient with lustful thoughts enters a monastery
Reaction Formation - Immature Defense
Reduces anxiety by taking up the opposite feeling, impulse, or behavior
Involuntarily withholding an idea or feeling from conscious awareness —> Underlies all other defense mechanisms.
A 20 y/o does not remember going to counseling during his parents’ divorce 10 years earlier.
Repression - Immature Defense
Believing that people are either all good or all bad at different times due to intolerance of ambiguity. Commonly seen in borderline personality disorder.
A patient says that all the nurses are cold and insensitive but the doctors are warm and friendly
Splitting - Immature Defense
Replacing an unacceptable wish with a course of action that is similar to the wish but socially acceptable.
Teenager’s aggressive urges toward his parents high expectations are channeled into excelling in sports.
Sublimation - Mature Defense
Alleviating negative feelings via unsolicited generosity, which provides gratification.
Mafia nos makes large donation to a church
Altruism - Mature Defense
Intentionally withholding an idea or feeling from conscious awareness; temporary.
Pt voluntarily chooses not to think about a piece of bad news.
Choosing not to worry about the big game until it’s time to play
Suppression - Mature Defense
Appreciating the amusing nature of an anxiety-provoking or adverse situation.
Nervous medical student jones about the boards.
Humor - Mature Defense
Involuntarily turning back the maturational clock and going back to earlier modes of dealing with the world (vs fixation)
An adult that is whining, bed wetting, and crying describes what defense?
Or, an 8 y/o girl who is being bullied in school starts carrying
around her security blanket again.
Seen in children under stress such as illness, punishment, or birth of a new sibling (like bed wetting in a previously toilet trained child)
Regression - immature
She is regressing from an earlier stage of life
Patient projects feelings about formative or other important persons onto physician (eg psychiatrist is seen as parent)
Transference
Doctor projects feelings about formative or other important persons onto patient (eg patient reminds physician of younger sibling)
Countertransference
