Sigmund Freud Defense Mechanisms

Repression What you do: Keep painful thoughts and feelings away from consciousness. Don’t think about it! Examples: Early abuse Lies you have told Painful memories Problems: Diverts needed energy Blocks out stressful situations that could be worked out

Denial Ego feels anxiety from perception of strong external or internal danger it can’t escape or deal with directly What you do: Tell yourself it is not happening Tell yourself it is not your fault Conscious denial

Displacement Feeling: anxiety anger What you do: Direct the feeling away from its actual target to another, safer target

Projection What you do: Attribute your own undesirable impulses, feeling, or desires to another person Examples: “I hate her” really means “I think she hates me” Problems: Misperceive the other person’s motivations Don’t deal with your own feelings Overreaction

Reaction-Formation What you do: In defense against the threatening impulse, express the opposite impulse. Examples: Someone frightens you so you act super nice Someone frightens you so you snub them The sex offender becomes the great protector of society. Problems: False persona

Rationalization What you do: Make up excuses for inadequacies, failure, or loss Examples: If I had wanted to try hard, I could have done it too. If my friend were more understanding, I wouldn’t have to loose my temper. If I wanted to I could have a body like his/hers. If I had better teachers, I would have gotten higher grades. Problems: Energy would be better spent on improving. The truth catches up with you.

Compensation What you do: Develop or strengthen positive traits to make up for limitations Distract attention from the weaknesses Examples: Weak in school, excellent in sports. Class clown Problems: Unbalanced Incompetent in some areas

Regression What you do: Revert back to behavior of an earlier stage Use childhood coping mechanisms Examples: Temper tantrums, swearing, fighting, sulking, crying Problems: Does not solve the problem People think you are immature You are not learning to cope well

Fantasy What you do: Dreaming, imagining instead of living in the present world, because you don’t feel competent to achieve. Pretending Examples: Wanting to look good and pretending to yourself that you are one of the movie stars you read about. Making up stories about how successful you are, rather than working on your success. Problems: You get stuck in the fantasy rather than using your talents to become successful.