Monday, 7 February 2022 11:34 am

- Ways to behave or think to protect or defend ourselves from anxieties

- How we distance ourselves from a full awareness of unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
- Regulated from unconscious mind; specific intrapsychic way of coping to resolve our emotional conflict and cope w
anxiety
- Use of DM leads to maladaptive way of coping

- ID
○ Part of one's nature PLEASURE PRINCIPLE (I want it, I want it now) and I that reflects basic or innate
always demand for the desires such as pleasure-immediate gratification of my needs
○ Seeking behavior, aggression, and sexual impulses
○ Seeks instant gratification, causes impulsive unthinking behavior and has no regard for rules or social
conversion
○ Irrational and not based on reality
- EGO
○ Balancing or mediating force between ID and Super-ego
○ Represents mature and adaptive behavior that allows person to function successfully in world
○ Adaptation to reality; modulation of anxiety; reality testing; store of experiences in memory, uses defense
mechanisms to protect self
- Super-Ego
○ part of a person’s on what’s IDEAL rather than nature that reflects moral REAL. and ethical concepts,
values and parental and social expectations.
○ constantly strives for perfection, even though this perfection ideal may be quite far from reality or
possibility. Its power to enforce rules comes from its ability to create anxiety.
 The Superego has two subsystems:
□ Ego Ideal - what child's parents approve
□ Conscience - rule about what constitute bad behavior
○ Direct opposition to the ID
○ Store and enforces rules for good behavior
- Ego's Attempt to "Defend"
○ Ego DM comes from unconscious mind except suppression which only the DM operating in conscious level
○ Protective barrier are used to manage instinct and effect on the presence of difficult situation
- Ego DM are Unconscious
○ DM are also interrelated to the level of human awareness that whatever action will take place by a
person, there is one aspect of our mind that regulating it and even aware of what we are doing

- Conscious
○ Refers to the perceptions, thoughts and emotions that exist in the person’s awareness, such as being
aware of happy feelings or thinking about loved-one
○ Through attention, person become conscious of perceptual stimuli from outside world
- Preconscious
○ thoughts & emotions are not currently in the person’s awareness but he or she can recall them in some
effort.
○ Ideas and reaction are stored and partially forgotten
○ Act as watch man bcs it prevents certain painful, unpleasant, unacceptable, disturbing memories from
reaching unconscious mind
- Unconscious
○ Is the realm of thoughts and feelings that motivates a person even though he or she is totally unaware
of them
 This realm includes most DEFENSE MECHANISMS and some instinctual drives or motivations
○ Largest part of mind (9/10)
○ Has hidden part of iceberg that flows under the water = contains ideas

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- Freud believed that much of what we do and say is motivated by our SUBCONSCIOUS THOUGHTS or feeling
- Term commonly used to describe slips of tongue
○ Ex: saying "u look portly today" to an overweight friend instead of "u look pretty today"
- Slips of tongue are not accident or coincidences but rather are indications of subconscious feelings or thoughts
that accidentally emerge in a casual day to day conversations.
- Freud believed that a person’s dream reflects his or her Subconscious and have significant meaning although
sometimes the meaning is hidden or symbolic.

- Includes:
○ S - self security protection
○ A - anxiety or fear reduction
○ M - mental conflict resolution
○ E - esteem self-protection

- Primitive DM
○ Denial
 Refusal to accept reality or fact, acting as if a painful event, thought or feeling did not exist while
being apparent to others
 Considered one of most primitive bcs it is characteristics of early childhood development
○ Regression
 Reversion to an earlier stage of development when faced w unacceptable, fearful, threatening
thoughts or impulses
□ Ex: an adult curling up in fetal position when feeling threatened or afraid
○ Acting out
 performing an extreme behavior in order to express thoughts or feelings the person feels
incapable of otherwise expressing
□ Ex: self-injury is expression through physical pain of what can't be stand to feel
emotionally
○ Dissociation
 Breaking off part of memory, consciousness, or perception of self or the environment to avoid
problem situation
 Trying to disconnect from real world to defend unbearable thoughts, feelings, and memories
□ Ex: Amnesia
○ Compartmentalization
 Lesser form of dissociation. Parts of self are separated from awareness of other parts and
behaving as if one had separate sets of values
□ Ex: honest person cheating in income taxes and keeping both sets of values separated and
unintegrated
○ Projection
 Misattribution of owns undesired thoughts, feelings, or impulses onto another person who does
not have those thoughts, feelings or impulses
□ Ex: spouse angry at significant other for not listening, when in fact, it is he who is not
listening
○ Reaction formation
 Converting unwanted or dangerous thoughts, feelings or impulses into their opposites
□ Ex: woman angry at boss and wanting to quit becomes overly kind and generous towards
boss and expresses desire to keep working there
- Less Primitive, More Mature DM
○ Repression
 Unconscious blocking of unacceptable and disturbing thoughts, feelings and impulses
 Done unconsciously, thus, little control over it
 Repressed memories - but never retrieved the same
○ Displacement
 Redirecting of thoughts, feelings and impulses from one person or object to another who poses
less threat
□ Ex: unable to express anger to boss for fear of being fired displaces anger into others:

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 □ Ex: unable to express anger to boss for fear of being fired displaces anger into others:
spouse, pet, etc.
○ Intellectualization
 Dealing w emotional stressors by excessive use of abstract thinking or complex explanations to
control or minimize disturbing feelings
 React in a cold way focusing on the intellectual aspect only
□ Ex: husband constructing elaborate logical explanations for wife's recent paranoia ideas
○ Rationalization
 Giving another interpretation to a situation in the face of changing reality
□ Ex: suddenly being dumped by somebody she was really interested in: "I don't care, I
suspected he was a loser all along"
○ Undoing
 An unconscious attempt to take back, nullify or "un-do" a thought or action that had resulted in
guild or anxiety
 Ex: husband who showers his wife w roses and chocolates on Valentine's day may be
unconsciously seeking to undo a year of neglect
- Mature DM
○ Sublimation
 Channeling of un-acceptable and potentially disruptive impulses, thoughts or emotions into socially
acceptable behavior
 Dealing w emotional stressors by using energy in other, usually constructive activities
□ Ex: punching bag to channel angry impulses
○ Self-assertion
 Being able to express own opinions and needs in a respectful and firm way. Not aggressively,
coercively or manipulatively
 Striking balance between communicating passively or aggressively
 Listening empathetically and expressing self in a balanced way
○ Compensation
 Psychologically counterbalancing perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strength in other areas
 Ex: physically unattractive adolescent starts weightlifting. Or "I am not a fighter, I'm a lover"
Napoleonic Cmplx
○ Altruism
 Dealing w stressors by dedicating urself to meeting the needs of others
 Through altruistic endeavors, a person receives satisfaction vicariously or from the response of
others
○ Affiliation
 Turning to others for help and support
 Sharing problems w others, but not trying to make someone else responsible for them
□ Ex: going to therapy, a support group, spiritual counsel
○ Self-observation
 Dealing w stress by reflection on one's thoughts, feelings, motivation, and behavior and then
responding appropriately
□ Ex: engaging in journaling, self-exploration, therapy, bibliotherapy, etc
○ Suppression
 Dealing w stress by intentionally avoiding thinking about disturbing problems, wishes, feelings, or
experiences
□ Ex: thinking about all those sweets in the staff lounge and wanting to eat them while on
diet
○ Anticipation
 Dealing w stressors by anticipating consequences and feelings associated w possible future events
and considering realistic solutions
□ Ex: getting old - think ahead and plan ur retirement wisely

- Minor:
○ Devaluation
 Attributing exaggerated negative qualities of self or others
○ Idealization
 Attributing exaggerated positive qualities to self or others
○ Omnipotence

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 ○ Omnipotence
 Acting as if self is possessed w special powers or abilities and is superior to others
- Major:
○ Autistic fantasy
 Excessive daydreaming as a substitute for human relationship, more effective action, or problem
solving
○ Projective identification
 Falsely attributing to another the feelings, thoughts or impulses of self; differing from simple
projection by the fact that the individual doesn't fully disavow what is projected; rather
misattributes them as justifiable reactions to other person
 Frequently the indiv induces those very feelings in others that were believed to be there, making
it difficult to untangle the situation
○ Splitting of self-image
 Compartmentalizing opposite affect states and failing to integrate the positive and negative
qualities of self or others into cohesive images.
 Self and object images tend to alternate between polar opposites
- Dysregulation
○ Delusional projection
 Attributing non reality-based thoughts, emotions and impulses to others
 Frank delusions about external reality, usually of a persecutory nature
 Ex: blaming others, society, history, economy for self-failure
○ Psychotic denial
 Gross impairment in reality testing
○ Psychotic distortion
 Gross impairment in perceiving reality differently than others

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