Defense Mechanisms

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COMMON ISSUES

NARCISSISTIC
anger, rage, addictions,
self-destructive behaviour,
sado-masochism,
low self-esteem,
feelings of worthlessness

“I don’t deserve love.”

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SCHIZOID
anger, not feeling
anything, dissociation,
relationship problems,
defensiveness, emotional
breakdown

“Nobody will love me.”

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MASOCHISTIC
obsessive compulsions,
abusive relationships, fear,
anxiety, phobias, self-harm,
depression, nervous
breakdown

“I’ll be loved if I’m good.”

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RIGID
sex-love-intimacy problems,
stress, inexibility, failed
relationships, compulsions,
coldness, nervous
breakdown

“I don’t know what love is.”

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ORAL
addictions, lethargy,
manic depression, mood
swings, rage, chaotic
lifestyle, suicidal impulses

“I can’t get love for myself.”

PRIMARY DEFENCES 

• Acting Out
  turn it into behaviour
• Aggression
  attack to defend
• Blaming
  someone else’s fault
• Delusion
  lie to yourself & believe it
• Denial
  it’s not happening
• Dissociation
  go numb
• Distortion
  changing the story to fit
• Emulation
  copy who you know
• Fantasizing
  go into other worlds
• Idealization
  over regard for others
• Identification
  forge an alliance
• Internalization
  turn into your beliefs
• Isolation
  separate off feelings
• Neediness
  over-dependence on another
• Omnipotence
  all powerful, no weakness
• Passive Aggression
  indirect & concealed attacks
• Projection
  put your feelings on someone
• Regression
  revert back to immaturity
• Repression
  unconsciously bury it
• Rationalization
  a false but plausible excuse
• Somatization
  turn it into a physical illness
• Splitting
  i am bad, so you are good
• Suppression
  consciously bury it

COMPLEX DEFENCES

• Altruism
  disguise with good deeds
• Cynicism
  everything is false
• Devaluation
  it doesn’t matter
• Displacement
  punch a bag
• Eroticization
  safety in sex
• Humour
  deflect with jokes
• Individualism
  flaunt it
• Intellectualization
  convert to safe concepts
• Undoing
  acts of compensation
• Perfectionism
  never slip up again
• Power
  control everyone
• Planning
  safety in organization
• Reversal
  do the opposite
• Spiritualization
  it’s all a divine plan
• Sublimation
  turn it into art

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Material Source: Sigmund Freud, Heinz Kohut, Melanie Klein, Ronald Fairbairn, Donald Winnicott
2008 written and designed by David McCandless at InformationIsBeautiful.net
2012 revised and additional design by Joe Swainson
January 9, 2013 published with permission at JanetOakes.com