Defense Mechanisms

What you do: Keep painful thoughts and feelings away from consciousness. Dont think about it! Examples: Early abuse Lies you have told Painful memories Problems: Diverts needed energy Blocks out stressful situations that could be worked out

What you do: In defense against the threatening impulse, express the opposite impulse. Examples: Someone frightens you so you act super nice Someone frightens you so you snub them The sex offender becomes the great protector of society. Problems: False persona

What you do: Attribute your own undesirable impulses, feeling, or desires to another person Examples: I hate her really means I think she hates me Problems: Misperceive the other persons motivations Dont deal with your own feelings Overreaction

Introjection is a defence mechanism whereby people incorporate positive qualities of another person into their own ego. People introject characteristics that they see as valuable and that will permit them to feel better about them selves

What you do: Revert back to behavior of an earlier stage Use childhood coping mechanisms Examples: Temper tantrums, swearing, fighting, sulking, crying Problems: Does not solve the problem People think you are immature You are not learning to cope well

Feeling: anxiety anger What you do: Direct the feeling away from its actual target to another, safer target

This is similar to displacement, but takes place when we manage to displace our emotions into a constructive rather than destructive activity. This might for example be artistic many great artists and musicians have had unhappy lives and have used the medium of art of music to express themselves. Sport is another example of putting our emotions (e.g. aggression) into something constructive.

Fixation (psychology), the state in which an individual becomes obsessed with an attachment to another human, an animal, or an inanimate object.
Technically, fixation is the permanent attachment of the libido onto an earlier more primative stage of development.

People who continually derive pleasure from eating,smoking, or talking may have an oral fixation. Whereas those who are obsessed with neatness and orderliness may possess an anal fixation.