Psychoanalytical - Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
1
Q
Repression
A
- Motivated forgetting
- Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious
- Ex: A traumatized soldier has no recollection of the details of a close brush with death
- Repression is the unconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts, feelings and impulses
- The key to repression is that people do it unconsciously, so they often have very little control over it.
- “Repressed memories” are memories that have been unconsciously blocked from access or view. But because memory is ever-changing, it is not like playing back a DVD of one’s life.
- The DVD has been filtered and even altered by life experiences, even by what a person has read or viewed.
2
Q
Identification
A
- Qualities of the other person are taking into the individual’s personality
- “Bolstering self-esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with some person or group.”
- This is a fairly common method of attempting to forget about ones troubles, happens fairly often, especially in insecure people.
- Example: A person joining a sports team, fraternity, social clique or even subcultures are all examples of this.
3
Q
Displacement
A
- Diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target. The redirection of a wish from one object to another. The most frequently defense occurring in dreaming.
- Ex: After a parental scolding, a young girl takes her anger out on her little brother.
4
Q
Denial
A
- Refusing to perceive the more unpleasant aspects of external reality
- Unable to face or see the truth
- Example - a person who is a functioning alcoholic will often simply deny they have a drinking problem, pointing to how well they function in their job and relationships.
5
Q
Projection
A
- Attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings, or motives to another
- Ex: A man, who is always very critical of himself, things that people are always staring and evaluating him negatively
6
Q
Reaction Formation
A
- Unacceptable urge is transformed into the opposite
* Example: rage is transformed into love and sexual desire into hate
7
Q
Rationalization
A
- Creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior.
- Ex: A student watches TV instead of studying, saying that “additional study wouldn’t do any good anyway”
