Defense Mechanisms

1. Eugene Calaoagan UERM Medicine 2011 Defense Mechanisms Mature and immature defenses

2. Immature Defenses

3. Acting Out • Expressing an unconscious wish or impulse through action to avoid being conscious of the accompanying effect • Example: • An addict gives in to their desire for alcohol or drugs • A person who dislikes another person seeks to cause harm to them

4. Blocking • Temporarily or transiently inhibiting thingking • Tension arises when the impulse, affect or thought was inhibited • Example: a homosexual male embarrassed about being attracted to other men may block his libidinous thoughts instead of coming to terms with his sexual orientation

5. Hypochondriasis • Exaggerating or overemphasizing an illness for the purpose of evasion or regression • Sometimes referred as health phobia or health anxiety • Fear of minor symptoms indicates serious illness • Constant self examinationand self diagnosis

6. Introjection • Internalizing the qualities of an object • Can be identification with the aggressor or the victim • Example: a mother that is physically abused by her husband maltreats her child • Simple example , a person who picks traits from their friends (if someone says “pasway” all the time, then their friends start saying it too)

7. Passive-aggressive Behavior • Expressing agression toward others indirectly through passivity, masochism and turning against the self • Manifest as learned helplessness, procrastination or resentment, stubbornness

8. Resentment

9. Regression • Attempting to return to an erlier libidinal phase of functioning • Common in stressed children • Example: a child becoming incontinent after years of toilet trained

11. Schizoid fantasy • Indulging in autistic retreat to resolved conflict and to obtain gratification

12. Somatization • Converting psychic derivatives into bodily symtoms and tending to react with somatic manifestations • Example: a patient feels dizzy with stomach pain when she thinks of her husband

13. Mature Defenses

14. Altruism • Using constructive and instinctually gratifying service to others to undergo vicarious experience • Example: giving alms to the needy

15. Ascetism • Eliminating pleasurable effects of experience

16. Anticipation • Realistically anticipating or planning for future inner discomfort "Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is."  This famous saying by Wayne  Gretzky, “the greatest player of all time” according to The Official Encyclopedia of the National Hockey League Strategies: 1. ask the right uestion 2.Recognising patterns 3. Prioritizing 4. mindfulness 5. emphaty

17. Humor • Using comedy to overtly express feelings and thoughts without personal discomfort or immobilization and without an unpleasant effect to others Surprise is a type of humor

18. Sublimation • Achieving impulse gratification and the retention of goals but altering socially objectionable aim or object to a socially acceptable one - termed coined by Freud - example is a writer sublimates his desire to a boy by writing inspired prose

19. Suppression • Consciously or semiconsciously postponing attention to a conscious impulse or conflict • Deliberately trying to stop thinking about certain thoughts • Repression is different in that it is unconscious and automatic