by Miss Queen

Defense mechanisms protect us from being consciously aware of a thought or feeling which we cannot tolerate. The defense only allows the unconscious thought or feeling to be expressed indirectly in a disguised form. Let's say you are angry with a professor because he is very critical of you. Here's how the various defenses might hide and/or transform that anger:

Denial: You completely reject the thought or feeling. "I'm not angry with him!"

Suppression: You are vaguely aware of the thought or feeling, but try to hide it. "I'm going to try to be nice to him."

Reaction Formation : You turn the feeling into its opposite.

Projection: You think someone else has your thought or feeling. "That professor hates me." "That student hates the professor."

Displacement You redirect your feelings to another target.. "I hate that secretary."

Rationalization Rationalization: You come up with various explanations to justify the situation (while denying your feelings). "He's so critical because he's trying to help us do our best.“ Intellectualization: A type of rationalization, only more intellectualized. "This situation reminds me of how Nietzsche said that anger is ontological despair.“

Undoing Undoing: You try to reverse or undo your feeling by DOING something that indicates the opposite feeling. It may be an "apology" for the feeling you find unacceptable within yourself. "I think I'll give that professor an apple

Isolation effect "Isolation of affect: You "think" the feeling but don't really feel it. "I guess I'm angry with him, sort of."

Regression Regression: You revert to an old, usually immature behavior to ventilate your feeling. "Let's shoot spitballs at people!"

Conclusion Defenses may hide any of a variety of thoughts or feelings: anger, fear, sadness, depression, greed, envy, competitiveness, love, passion, admiration, criticalness, dependency, selfishness, grandiosity, helplessness.

Activity Your Group's Role play: In your small group, develop a role play that you can perform in front of the class. In it demonstrate several defense mechanisms. Try to give everyone in the group a part to play. Good role plays usually spend a minute or so to develop the scene, the characters, and the situation at hand. At that point start to introduce the defenses into the scene. The whole role play should last about 3-5 minutes. After you finish the scene, the class will try to guess which defense mechanisms you were demonstrating.

Sublimation Sublimation: You redirect the feeling into a socially productive activity.

Paranoid Paranoid: suspicious, argumentative, paranoid, continually on the lookout for trickery and abuse, jealous, tendency to blame others, cold and humorless "I'm going to write a poem about anger."

Schizoid has few friends; a "loner"; indifferent to praise and criticism of others; unable to form close relationships; no warm or tender feelings for other people

Sociopath: breaks rules and laws; takes advantage of other people for personal gain; feels little remorse or guilt; appears friendly and charming on the surface; often intelligent

Schizotypal : also aloof and indifferent like the schizoid; magical thinking; superstitious beliefs; uses unusual words and has peculiar ideas; a very mild form of schizophrenia

Borderline: very unstable relationships; erratic emotions; self- damaging behavior; impulsive; unpredictable aggressive and sexual behavior; monophobia; easily angered

Histrionic: overly dramatic; attention seekers; easily angered; seductive; dependent on others; vain, shallow, and manipulative; displays intense, but often false emotions

Narcissistic: grandiose; crave admiration of others; extremely self-centered; feel they are privileged and special; expects favors from others; emotions are not erratic

Compulsive: perfectionists; preoccupied with details, rules, schedules; more concerned about work than pleasure; serious and formal; cannot express tender feelings

Passive-Aggressive: indirectly expresses anger by being forgetful and stubborn; procrastinates; cannot admit to feeling angry; habitually late

Try It Use the worksheet: Personality Disorders Match up the following disorders with the descriptions of the party:

William=schizotypal, Sherry=borderline, Winston=narcissistic, Peter=compulsive, Doreen=paranoid, Margie=passive-aggressive, Harold=schizoid Donna=hystrionic,