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Karen J. Prager, Ph.D., A.B.P.P. Professor of Psychology and Program Head for Gender Studies Diplomate in Family Psychology The University of Texas at Dallas |
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More Information About Dr. Prager's work Processes in Couple Relationships Teaching and Professional Practice Selected Papers and Publications
For Students:
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Defense Mechanisms Repression – the ego unconsciously bars/obliterates from consciousness the anxiety-arousing wishes, memories, or feelings. Repression can be effective but it is inefficient as it demands much psychic energy. It drains the ego of energy that might otherwise be available for more constructive activities. The energy drain is fatiguing and increases the likelihood of speech errors ("Freudian slips"). Not a conscious choice. Suppression – the conscious choice to push something from awareness. Usually a temporary strategy, used until the ego has time to think through and solve the problem. Somaticization – repressed feelings or wishes are converted into physical or somatic expressions, which have no organic basis (includes conversion disorder/hysteria). The physical symptoms are symbolically connected to the repressed material, and the physical symptoms have replaced repression as the mechanism for keeping the conflictual material out of consciousness. What is symbolized often includes: the forbidden impulse itself, the prohibition, and the anxiety that would have resulted from the free expression of the impulse. Regression – the anxiety-arousing wish is given up (along with the energy-draining repression to keep it outside of consciousness), and replaced with an earlier, more childish wish that does not cause anxiety. In this case, the ego retreats to well-established and therefore comfortable patterns of an earlier time to cope with the anxiety of new demands. Denial – the ego unconsciously bars perceptions of real-world phenomena from consciousness, through various forms: fantasy, pretending, daydreaming, or outright denial. By adding "no" or "not" to the wish or feeling (I do "not" feel that way) we can express the wish while still keeping it unconscious through denial. Denial is a costly defense mechanism because it sabotages the ego’s reality-testing and problem-solving function. Reaction Formation – Transforms the original impulse, wish or feeling into its opposite (on the assumption that opposites, such as love and hate, are more same than different). What opposites have in common is an emotional intensity that can thereby be expressed through this defense mechanism. Introjection – preserves the essential nature of the motive but changes the object to the self. Protects the self from recognizing or otherwise acknowledging unacceptable impulses towards others. Turns the impulse towards the self. Displacement – preserves the nature of the motive but changes the object from a more threatening to less threatening one. Protects the self from recognizing the true object of the impulse (e.g., of one’s aggression) while still allowing the impulse to be expressed. Identification – again, preserves the nature of the motive, but changes the object through imagining oneself to be the object. By becoming like (or one with) the object of the impulse, the person thereby turns the threatening impulse towards the self (often occurs in conjunction with introjection). Projection – preserves the nature of the impulse or motive, but attributes it to someone other than the self. The wish is thereby allowed to enter consciousness but it is transformed into a perception of the external world (or a specific other person) and its relation to the self is expressed symbolically through the person’s perception of the other. Rationalization – uses pseudo-reasoning to justify actions motivated by unconscious impulses, wishes, or motives. The unconscious impulse is allowed expression through the construction of a pseudo-rational basis for doing so. Often accompanied by projection: the person projects an impulse onto someone else, then rationalizes "responding" to the other person in kind, thus allowing the impulse to be expressed. Isolation/Intellectualization – allows the person to have the thought or action associated with an unconscious impulse without also having the anxiety. The person unconsciously isolates the motive-related thoughts and actions from the associated emotions so that now the thoughts can exist without emotion. The emotion remains, however, and continues to be uncomfortable (although it is not associated with anything in particular). Intellectualization allows the person to displace the emotion onto an abstract (and therefore nonthreatening idea), so that the energy from the emotion can be expressed through thinking or brooding that goes around and around but never gets anywhere. Undoing – a repeated act that symbolically reverses the consequences of an original, anxiety-arousing wish or motive. Especially used in the presence of moral anxiety. |