Personality Disorders and Defense Mechanisms

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders The DSM-IV is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders and personality types.

What is Mental Illness? A disorderly functioning of the mind Can be caused by psychological factors (experiences) or physiological factors (brain function, disease, genetics)

Categories of Mental Illness Anxiety Disorders (i.e. anxiety, phobias, OCD, anorexia, bulimia) Mood Disorders (i.e. depression, bipolar affective disorder) Schizophrenia Disorders (i.e. schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder) Personality Disorders (i.e. psychopathic disorder, sociopath)

Facts about Mental Illness in Canada 40% of patient visits to family doctors are related to emotional, not physical problems 16% of health expenditures are for psychiatric disorders 80% of suicides are carried out by people with depression 2.4% of teenage boys and 7% of teenage girls suffer from depression 10-25% of North Americans suffer from anxiety disorders

Mental Disorders…. NEUROSIS: suffers experience high levels of anxiety or tension in managing their daily lives. E.g. panic attacks, anxiety, phobias, and O.C.D. http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/episode/age-of-anxiety.html PSYCHOSIS: patient loses touch with the real world, may suffer from hallucinations or delusions and needs treatment before he/she can live a life with any degree of normality. E.g. paranoid schizophrenia

Abnormal Psychology Abnormal means “different” from what is usual. This changes from culture, time, and place. Neuroses: mild disorder, ways to escape (defense mechanisms), unable to cope with a situation but are generally in touch with reality and understand the nature of their problems, seldom requires hospitalization Psychoses: serious mental illness, distortion of reality, confused about time, place, and understanding of their behaviour, hospitalization will occur.

Adolf Hitler

How do people respond to dealing with disorders? Psychologist Sigmund Freud would use… Defence Mechanisms

What are Defence Mechanisms? Situations can occur that can challenge your healthy mental outlook. Wanting to guard yourself against pain, stress, and frustration in these situations it is only natural… Using Defence Mechanisms is one way you care for your mental health…however, if an individual relies too heavily on defense mechanisms to avoid their problems, they may face severe mental health issues.

Defence Mechanisms… … are behaviour patterns people use to protect themselves …they can be positive or negative solutions to a problem. It depends entirely how they are used …when people are aware they are using defence mechanisms, they are in control of their actions. They are using the defence mechanism in an attempt to maintain a healthy mental state.

Defence Mechanisms… Some people fail to realize they are relying on defence mechanisms. In these cases, they can cause people to lose touch with reality…

Repression… Is the blocking of unacceptable impulses from consciousness; removing traumatic experiences from our conscious memory… “It didn’t happen”…syndrome

Rationalization… The cognitive reframing of ones perceptions to protect the ego in the face of changing realities. E.g. the promotion one wished for and didn’t get becomes: “a dead end job for brown nosers”…

Displacement… The redirecting of thoughts, feelings and impulses from an object that gives rise to anxiety to a safer, more acceptable one. Replacing a threatening object with a less threatening one.. E.g. being angry at your boss and yelling at your dog for its tail knocking over your drink.

Denial… The refusal to accept reality and to act as if a painful event, thought or feeling did not exist. One of the most primitive of defence mechanisms and characteristic of very early childhood development. Example: Your mom asks you to ride the lady bug ride with your younger brother, but you do not want to ride the “baby rides.” When reminded of the meltdown you had for not getting to ride the ladybug ride at the fair the year before you respond “No, I didn’t, I never wanted to ride that ride. I cried because it was a really hot day.”

Reaction Formation… The converting of wishes or impulses that are perceived to be dangerous into their opposites; finding reasons why others shouldn’t do something that we’ve done. E.g. a woman who is furious at her child and wishes her harm might become overly concerned & protective of the child’s(post-partum depression)/you can’t drive in the United States because its too dangerous.

Projection… The attribution of one’s undesired impulses onto another. E.g. an angry friend accuses their friend of being angry about something. “It’s not my fault, you started it…”

Regression… Is the reversion of an earlier stage of development in the face of unacceptable impulses. E.g. an adolescent who is overwhelmed with fear, anger, might become clingy & begin thumb sucking or bed wetting or have a temper tantrum

Fantasy / Daydreaming The channelling of unacceptable or unattainable desires into imagination; it can protect ones self esteem as when educational, occupational, or social expectations are not being met, one imagines success in these areas… Examples: “If I were the boss, I would. . .”

Sublimation.. The channelling of unacceptable social impulses into more acceptable outlets. E.g. Anger, competition – Hockey fights

Compensation… A process of psychologically balancing perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strength in other arenas… The “I’m not a fighter, I’m a lover” philosophy…

Compartmentalization… A process of separating parts of the self from awareness of other parts and behaving as if one had separate sets of values… e.g. A soldier is able to kill another human although he would never harm another outside of war (he compartmentalizes his feelings about killing and the horror to achieve a different goal).

Undoing… Is the attempt to take back behaviour or thoughts that are unacceptable. E.g. Excessively praising someone after having insulted them…

Add to your knowledge Read pages 228-233 Answer questions: Summarize/define the following terms: Nature- Defecit Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorder, Hoarding, Cyberpychology