Defense Mechanisms  Defense Mechanisms  the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality  Repression  the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety- arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness  This is why we do not remember our sexual feelings for our parent.  It does come out in dream symbols or slips of the tongue.

Defense Mechanisms  Regression  defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated  A new kindergartner may be nervous and start to suck her thumb.  College students may wish for the comforts of home.

Defense Mechanisms  Reaction Formation  defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites  people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings  In situations where you are timid, you may act daring

Defense Mechanisms  Projection  defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others  “He doesn’t trust me” means “I don’t trust him”  Rationalization  defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions.  People who choose to be drink may say they do it “just to be social”

Defense Mechanisms  Displacement  defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person  as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet  When a kid is angry at a parent, he may kick the family pet

Sublimation- transformation of unacceptable impulses to socially valued motivations. example- da Vinci’s paintings of Madonna are a sublimation of his longing for an intimate relationship with his mother who left him at an early age.