Important Psychoanalytic Terminology (II): Defense Mechanisms

Defense Mechanism

A method used by the EGO to ward off threats from the id, superego, or external world, and to reduce the corresponding anxiety. Most defense mechanisms operated unconsciously, making possible the primary goal of self-deception.

Denial of reality

Refusing to believe, or even perceive, some threat in the external world; a defense mechanism.

Displacement

Transferring behaviors or emotions, often unconsciously , from one object to another that is less threatening: a defense mechanism.

Fantasy (daydreaming)

Gratifying unfulfilled needs by imagining situations in which they are satisfied; a defense mechanism.

Identification

(1) Reducing painful feelings of self-contempt by becoming like objects that are illustrious and admired, such as idols, aggressors, or lost loves; a defense mechanism.

(2) The healthy desire to become like one’s parents.

Intellectulization

Unconsciously separating threatening emotions from the associated thoughts or events and reacting on only an intellectual level; a defense mechanism.

Introjection

Unconsciously incorporating someone else’s values or personal qualities into one’s own personality.

Projection

Unconsciously attributing one’s own threatening impulse, emotions, or beliefs to other people or things; a defense mechanism.

Rationalization

Using and believing superficially plausible explanations in order to justify illicit behavior and reduce feelings of guilt; a defense mechanism.

Reaction formation

Repressing threatening beliefs, emotions, or impulses and unconsciously replacing them with their opposites: a defense mechanism.

Regression

(1) Unconsciously adopting behavior typical of an earlier and safer time in one’s life; a defense mechanism.

(2) A reverse flow of libido to an object previously abandoned, or to an earlier psychosexual stage.

Repression

Unconsciously eliminated threatening material from consciousness and using anticathexes to prevent it from regaining consciousness, thus being unable to recall it; a defense mechanism.

Sublimination

Unconsciously channeling illicit instinctual impulses into socially acceptable behavior. A form of displacement, but one that represents ideal behavior.

Undoing

Unconsciously adopting ritualistic behaviors that symbolically negate previous actions or thoughts that cause feelings of guilt; a defense mechanism.

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