Library / English Dictionary

    DEFENCE MECHANISM

    Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

     I. (noun) 

    Sense 1

    Meaning:

    (psychiatry) an unconscious process that tries to reduce the anxiety associated with instinctive desiresplay

    Synonyms:

    defence; defence mechanism; defence reaction; defense; defense mechanism; defense reaction

    Classified under:

    Nouns denoting natural processes

    Hypernyms ("defence mechanism" is a kind of...):

    process; unconscious process (a mental process that you are not directly aware of)

    psychoanalytic process (a process that is assumed to occur in psychoanalytic theory)

    Domain category:

    psychiatry; psychological medicine; psychopathology (the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders)

    Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "defence mechanism"):

    compensation ((psychiatry) a defense mechanism that conceals your undesirable shortcomings by exaggerating desirable behaviors)

    conversion ((psychiatry) a defense mechanism represses emotional conflicts which are then converted into physical symptoms that have no organic basis)

    denial ((psychiatry) a defense mechanism that denies painful thoughts)

    displacement ((psychiatry) a defense mechanism that transfers affect or reaction from the original object to some more acceptable one)

    idealisation; idealization ((psychiatry) a defense mechanism that splits something you are ambivalent about into two representations--one good and one bad)

    intellectualisation; intellectualization ((psychiatry) a defense mechanism that uses reasoning to block out emotional stress and conflict)

    isolation ((psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which memory of an unacceptable act or impulse is separated from the emotion originally associated with it)

    projection ((psychiatry) a defense mechanism by which your own traits and emotions are attributed to someone else)

    rationalisation; rationalization ((psychiatry) a defense mechanism by which your true motivation is concealed by explaining your actions and feelings in a way that is not threatening)

    reaction formation ((psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously develops attitudes and behavior that are the opposite of unacceptable repressed desires and impulses and serve to conceal them)

    regression ((psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which you flee from reality by assuming a more infantile state)

    repression ((psychiatry) the classical defense mechanism that protects you from impulses or ideas that would cause anxiety by preventing them from becoming conscious)

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