Psychological Defense Mechanisms
Mechanism↕ | Type↕ | Example↕ | Healthy Or Unhealthy↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Denial | Primitive | An alcoholic insisting they don't have a drinking problem | Unhealthy | The most basic and common defense mechanism |
Repression | Primitive | Having no memory of a childhood traumatic event | Unhealthy | Freud's foundational concept of the unconscious |
Projection | Primitive | A cheating spouse accusing their partner of infidelity | Unhealthy | Seeing your own flaws in other people |
Displacement | Neurotic | Yelling at your family after a bad day at work | Unhealthy | Kicking the dog phenomenon |
Rationalization | Neurotic | Saying 'I didn't want that job anyway' after being rejected | Unhealthy | Sour grapes from Aesop's fable |
Reaction Formation | Neurotic | Being excessively nice to someone you secretly dislike | Unhealthy | Overcompensation to hide true emotions |
Regression | Primitive | An adult throwing a tantrum when frustrated | Unhealthy | Reverting to childlike behavior under stress |
Sublimation | Mature | A person with aggressive impulses becoming a surgeon or boxer | Healthy | Freud considered it the most successful defense mechanism |
Intellectualization | Neurotic | Discussing the statistics of cancer rather than feeling fear about a diagnosis | Moderately unhealthy | Thinking about feelings instead of feeling them |
Humor | Mature | Making jokes about a difficult situation to reduce tension | Healthy | Recognized as a mature coping strategy |
Compensation | Neurotic | A person with poor social skills becoming exceptionally successful at work | Can be healthy | Alfred Adler's concept of overcoming inferiority |
Dissociation | Primitive | Feeling like you're watching yourself from outside your body during trauma | Unhealthy | Extreme form associated with dissociative disorders |
Undoing | Neurotic | Buying expensive gifts after saying something hurtful | Unhealthy | Ritualistic attempts to cancel out guilt |
Altruism | Mature | Volunteering at a hospital after losing a loved one to illness | Healthy | Constructive way of dealing with personal pain |
Splitting | Primitive | Idolizing a friend one day then completely devaluing them the next | Unhealthy | Central feature of borderline personality disorder |
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