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.

PSY102: Psychology of Personality, Prof. T.R. Tharney

Ewen, Robert B. An Introduction to Theories of Personality: Sixth Edition. Mahawah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., 2003.

Anticathexis (counter-cathexis)

Psychic energy that is used by the ego to oppose a dangerous or immoral cathexis.

Anxiety

A highly unpleasant emotion similar to intense nervousness. The three types are:

• Realistic or objective anxiety: (related to threats in the external world)
• Neurotic anxiety: (related to powerful id impulses)
• and Moral anxiety: (related to the superego’s standards of right and wrong)

Castration anxiety

The boy’s fear that his sexual organ will be removed as punishment for his Oedipal wishes.

Cathexis

Psychic energy that is invested in a mental representation of an object. The stronger the cathexis, the greater the amount of psychic energy and the more the object is desired.

Conscious

The part of personality that includes material of which one is aware.

Drive

(1) A psychological state of tension and discomfort that is caused by a physiological state of tension and discomfort that is caused by a physiological (bodily) need.

(2) Sometimes use as an synonym for instinct.

Drive Reduction

Eliminating or decreasing the discomfort and tension of a drive, which satisfies the underlying physiological need. To Freud, the major source of pleasure.

Eros

A synonym for the sexual instinct.

Erotogenic zone

An area of the body that is capable of producing erotic gratification when stimulated.

Instinct

An innate motivating force that is activated by a need. The two types are sexual and destructive (aggressive).

Libido

The psychic energy associated with the sexual instinct; sometimes used to refer to both sexual and destructive energy.

Narcissism

Self-love; the investment of one’s own self with libido.

Object

Whatever will satisfy an activated instinct. May be an inanimate entity, a person, or even something fanciful and irrational.

Oedipus complex

Powerful feelings of love for the parent of the opposite sex and hostile jealousy for the parent of the same sex,

TOGETHER with powerful feelings of love for the parent of the same sex and hostile jealousy for the parent of the opposite sex.

The former set of attitudes is usually, but not always, the stronger.

Over-determination

A term referring to the numerous, complicated causes of most behavior.

Parapraxis

An apparent accident that is caused by unconscious mental processes, and therefore indicates one’s real feelings and beliefs; a “Freudian slip”

Penis envy

The girl’s jealousy of the boy’s protruding sexual organ.

Pleasure principle

The goal underlying all human behavior, to achieve pleasure and avoid unpleasure (pain).

Preconscious

The part of personality that includes material that is not within one’s awareness, but can be readily be brought to mind.

Primal scene

Observing one’s parents’ sexual intercourse.

Primary process

The chaotic, irrational mode of thought representative of the ID.

Psychic determinism

The principle that nothing in the psyche happens by chance; all mental activity has a prior cause.

Psychic energy

The “fuel” that powers all mental activity; an unobservable, abstract construct.

Psycho-analysis

(1) The name Freud gave to his theory of personality.

(2) The method of psychotherapy devised by Freud.

Reality principle

Delaying the discharge of tension until a suitable object has been found; a function of the EGO.

Secondary process

The logical, self-preservative, problem-solving mode of thought representative of the EGO.

Unconscious

The part of personality that includes materials that is not within one’s awareness and cannot readily be brought to mind. To Freud, most of personality is unconscious.

Wish-fulfillment

Forming a mental image of an object that will satisfy a need; a function of the id.