Defense Mechanisms

Here is a quick reference to some of the defense mechanisms used by the client to help him cope with stressors:

• Compensation: The development of attributes that take the place of more desirable ones

• Conversion reaction: The development of physical symptoms in response to emotional distress

• Denial: The failure to regard an event or a feeling

• Displacement: The transference of emotions to another other than the intended

• Projection: The transferring of unacceptable feelings to another person

• Rationalization: The dismissal of one’s responsibility by placing fault on another

• Reaction formation: The expression of feelings opposite to one’s true feelings

• Regression: The returning to a previous state of development in which one felt secure

• Repression: The unconscious forgetting of unpleasant memories

• Sublimation: The channeling of unacceptable behaviors into behaviors that are socially acceptable

• Suppression: The conscious forgetting of an undesirable memory