defense mechanism

1. (psychiatry) an unconscious process that tries to reduce the anxiety associated with instinctive desires (synset 113480525)
   referred to in: psychiatry, psychological medicine, psychopathology - the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders
   is a type of:

   • process, unconscious process - a mental process that you are not directly aware of
   • psychoanalytic process - a process that is assumed to occur in psychoanalytic theory
   subtypes:

   • compensation - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that conceals your undesirable shortcomings by exaggerating desirable behaviors
   • conversion - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism represses emotional conflicts which are then converted into physical symptoms that have no organic basis
   • denial - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that denies painful thoughts
   • displacement - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that transfers affect or reaction from the original object to some more acceptable one
   • idealisation, idealization - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that splits something you are ambivalent about into two representations--one good and one bad
   • intellectualisation, intellectualization - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that uses reasoning to block out emotional stress and conflict
   • isolation - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which memory of an unacceptable act or impulse is separated from the emotion originally associated with it
   • projection - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism by which your own traits and emotions are attributed to someone else
   • rationalisation, rationalization - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism by which your true motivation is concealed by explaining your actions and feelings in a way that is not threatening
   • reaction formation - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously develops attitudes and behavior that are the opposite of unacceptable repressed desires and impulses and serve to conceal them
   • regression - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which you flee from reality by assuming a more infantile state
   • repression - (psychiatry) the classical defense mechanism that protects you from impulses or ideas that would cause anxiety by preventing them from becoming conscious
   same as: defence, defence mechanism, defence reaction, defense, defense reaction

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