In each definition: It is an ego defense or mental mechanism operating outside of and beyond conscious

awareness through which …….

Major defense mechanisms

1. Compensation: The individual seeks to make up or compensate for their real or perceived defects or
deficiencies/shortcomings. It fulfills self esteem. Eg, dreams of being rich in a poor person.

2. Conversion: Converting emotional conflicts into emotional, behavioral or physical symptoms.

Primitive. Eg, acting out, conversion disorder.

3. Denial: Person refuses to accept the reality. There may be denial of feelings, wishes, needs. Saying it
does not exist.

4. Displacement: The emotion, fear, or drive experienced is transferred and redirected towards a new
object, person or situation. Primitive. Eg, scapegoating.

5. Dissociation: 1) Detachment of affect/emotion from an object or event. 2) Aspects of personality split

off. Eg, DID, Derealization/depersonalization disorder, dissociative amnesia, fugue, dissociation of affect
in schizophrenia, dissociation of responsibility.

6. Fantasy: vivid daydreams. Pictorial. A fantasy is a series of mental images which seek to resolve
conflict. Ego defense through which partial fulfillment or gratification of difficult or impossible wishes or
urges is attained.

7. Idealization: through which a person or object is overvalued/overestimated and emotionally

aggrandized. Process through which a person creates an ideal. Idealization of persons, relationships,
goals, possessions, situations, groups. Placing on a pedestal. Through idealization, blocking of
unacceptable aspects of a person or object. Eg, hero worship, falling in love, fangirling. Crush:
inobtainable ideal. Evolved.

8. Identification: It plays most important role in character development. Through identification, a

person develops traits, attributes and attitudes similar to those of another significant person. An
individual identifies with another person: he makes himself like the other person. Unconsciously taking
over of other’s thoughts, emotions, behavior, reactions, goal, traits. First idealize, then identify.
Evolved/higher order mechanism.

9. Incorporation: Through which another person or his attributes are symbolically taken within oneself,
to be symbolically ingested and assimilated. Oral stage. Primitive

10. Internalization: symbolic taking in of external objects. Evolved. Through which external attributes,
attitudes and standards are taken in/internalized. Internalization of values. One’s taste in art, music,
literature, food, attitude towards people is internalized from parents, friends etc.

11. Introjection: Through which loved or hated object (object-person) can be taken in symbolically.
Introjection involves another person towards whom strong love or hate is felt. Those strong emotions
then are directed inwards, towards the self. Self/ego is a safer/more acceptable substitute target. It is
different from incorporation as the object-person remains distinct/is not assimilated. Depression.
Suicide (hated introject).

12. Inversion: An unconscious unacceptable impulse or emotion becomes directly reversed/opposite in

one’s conscious awareness and in its outward expression. The intolerable impulse is inverted into its
opposite. Eg, attraction inversion. Eg, bipolar: mood inversion.

13. Projection: Through which a person attributes their own wishes or feelings to another person.
Opposite of introjection. Eg, it’s not me, it’s you.

14. The king David Reaction: emotional reaction towards unrecognized personal attributes in others. It
can be triggered by physical, behavioral or psychological resemblance of another person to self. It can
be positive or negative. For eg, falling in love with another person because of their similarity to self, but
not consciously recognizing that similarity.

15. Rationalization: The ego justifies behavior or feelings or the ego modifies unacceptable impulses and
motives into more acceptable and tolerable ones.

16. Reaction formation: through which major outward character, attitude, needs and motives develop
which are opposite of consciously disowned ones. Personally and socially more acceptable goals and
drives are formed which are opposite of inner hidden ones. Outward reversal of basic internal drives and
needs. Eg, anger reaction: kindness, sexual impulses reaction: excessive morality.

Diff b/w inversion and RF: RF is broad, important in personality formation. Inversion is narrow, in specific
impulses.

17. Rechannelization: The energy of (personally and socially) intolerable impulses and drives is
redirected to acceptable channels. Also called sublimation. Evolved, constructive. Deflection of
intrapsychic energy into acceptable, nonaggressive, nonsexual activites. These activites are creative,
useful and of social and cultural value. It can lead to highest creative endeavors in art, research,
scientific achievement, philosophy, government, medicine, law, architecture etc.

18. Regression: Ego retreats into a safer and more dependant position of an earlier era. Primitive.
Withdrawal into earlier, more protected positions when unable to cope with life.

19. Repression: Repression is the term for automatic and consciously effortless kind of memory loss.
Through operation of repression, ideas, emotional feelings and impulses which are consciously
intolerable, are assigned to deeper layer of psyche, called unconscious. Buried deeply within. Repression
is the process of assignment to the unconscious. A memory, thought or urge is repressed when the
associated emotion is unpleasant. It may be threatening, painful and anxiety provoking.

20. Restitution: Through which the ego seeks to make amends or reparations to person or group for
losses which have been inflicted, or for injuries or damages for which responsibility is assumed. This
assessment of causing harm or injury may or may not be realistic. The unconscious mind just assumes
that it has sinned and starts the making-up-process. It involves some restorative act. Compensation.
motivated by guilt and responsibility, on command of superego.

Diff b/w restitution and atonement-penance: Restitution: directly paying back to the wronged parties.
Atonement penance: Punishing oneself by inflicting pain and suffering to oneself.

21. Substitution: Through which an unacceptable or unobtainable goal, emotion, satisfaction, impulse,
interest or need is replaced by another more acceptable one. This alternative may be similar or
different. Displacement and substitution may occur together. Eg, a girl used to poke kids with needle, as
she grew up, she started sewing. House tidying in lieu of life tidying.

22. Symbolization: Through which an external object becomes the outward representation from
another internal and hidden idea, emotion or person. One is consciously aware of the symbol, but not
what the symbol represents. Meaning and emotional significance is attached to the symbol: it becomes
important. Symbols in dreams.

23. Undoing: Through which ego seeks to actually or symbolically undo a thought, impulse, wish, or an
act experiencing of which is consciously intolerable or anxiety provoking. Psychologic erasure of what a
person has thought, felt or done. Erasing/undoing things that cause anxiety. A person does something
 regrets doing it  erase it. Sometimes restitution and atonement-penance as a type of undoing.
Obsessions, compulsions.

Minor defense mechanisms

1. A. Absolution: Through one which seeks freedom/release from guilt, responsibility, obligation, debt,
sin or penalty. Through absolution, one is set free from guilt, sin, or consequences. Absolution is the
forgiveness of an offense.

2. B. Atonement-Penance: Atonement is taking action to correct previous wrongdoing (reparation,

through undoing the consequences or through expressing remorse, feeling sorrow). Penance is self
punishment for sins. Masochism, contributing to personal misery. Eg, If a person considers happiness, he
will punish himself for enjoying life, “for every smile, a tear must fall.”

3. C. Compartmentalization: process of emotional segregation. Through which ego segregates segments

of experience, mental activity, or opposing elements of psychic conflict, together with affect and
cognition associated with them into separate components or compartments. Wikipedia:
Compartmentalization is a subconscious psychological defense mechanism used to avoid cognitive
dissonance, or the mental discomfort and anxiety caused by a person's having conflicting values,
cognitions, emotions, beliefs, etc. within themselves. Compartmentalization allows these conflicting
ideas to co-exist by inhibiting direct or explicit acknowledgement and interaction between separate
compartmentalized self-states.

4. D. Compromise formation: Arbitration and mediation. Ego is the mediator, it settles differences. Ego
forms a compromise between id and superego, or between id and external factors. Conflicting desires,
needs, aims, goals, and standards of id and ego. Ego resolves that conflict.
5. E. Condensation: A symbol comes to represent several objects. Several symbols combine to form one
symbol. Several concepts, ideas or needs are condensed in their figurative representation, so that a
single symbol serves to stands for them. Fusion of events, emotions or mental images. In dreams, a
number of elements may be fused into a single representation. Several needs or ideas are represented
by one symbol. Eg, in dream.

6. F. Convergence: Through which single expression stems from the coming together (converging) of
multiple psychic factors.

7. G. Deferment: through which emotional postponement is secured. Emotions are put away for a later
time. Time is gained and the emotions become easier to cope/deal with. One can better take care of
emergencies when emotions are delayed.

8. H. Devaluation: through which the level of emotional significance is reduced. Through which the ego
lessens or decreases the meaning of an event, strength of a wish, pain of a hurt, impact of aggression
and so on. Eg, a person jokes about his terminal illness. A person may laugh and make fun of what is
threatening and frightening.

9. I. Distortion: Through which an affect, drive, aim, or object is changed, altered or misrepresented. Eg,
exaggerating one’s past accomplishments, a man blaming his wife for his failure to lose weight.

10. J. Diversion: through which deflection of attention or interests is secured.

11. Extension: A mental mechanism or ego defense operating outside of and beyond conscious
awareness through which scope of an emotional complex is increased.

12. Externalization: outward redirection of emotions and conflicts. Eg, hypochondriasis, conversion,
phobia.

13. Fainting: When the perception become too painful, it is shut off. Dissociative. Protective. Sudden
and complete loss of consciousness.

14. Fire Drills: One anticipate/ prepare for dreaded events. A lot of energy is spent in preparing for
emergencies or crises.

15. Generalization: Emotional diffusion. Attitudes or emotions experienced towards a person or object
come to be applied more generally. Eg, attitude towards a person becomes generalized to a group.
Affect is distributed, now more tolerable. Racial prejudice.

16. Intellectualization: The process through which emotions are placed and dealt with on an intellectual
plane. Thinking about events in a cold clinical way. A person with a terminal illness reads everything
about that illness. thinking is used to avoid feeling.

17. Isolation: affect divorcement. Affect/ emotional charge is isolated/separated/divorced from any idea
or object.
18. Overdeterminism: Through the process of overdeterminism, emotional manifestations are ensured.
I didnt understand this one.

19. Personal Invulnerability: Viewing oneself as indestructible. Effective.

20. Replacement: An object, emotion, person or symptoms is replaced by another similar or related
one.

21. Retribution: superego becomes the jury and judges the actions. The individual provides awards or
punishment, usually punishments to oneself or another. Related to guilt.

22. Retrospective Devaluation: Downgrading the emotional significance of a past event.

23. Reversal: Emotional turnabout. This defense mechanism involves a switch from one behavior or
emotion to its opposite.

24. Splitting: Through this, components of emotional states are split off. Mixed affect experienced
towards an object is separated into components, for eg, negative and positive aspects, or love and hate
etc. When someone perceives the world in polarised terms, e.g. good versus bad.

25. Unwitting Ignorance: It contributes to poor memory, slowness of understanding and thinking, and
inability to dispel ignorance. If one does not know, they are not expected to do something or be
responsible.

26. Withdrawal: One retreats from reality, from life. One withdraws from relationships, social situations
and painful conflicts.

27. Regression: people act out behaviors from the stage of psychosexual development in which they are
fixated.