api: YAML JSON TOON Database
version: 1.0.0
format: json
dataset:
  slug: defense-mechanisms
  title: Defense Mechanisms
  description: Psychological strategies used to manage internal conflict.
  summary: "Defense mechanisms as described in the psychodynamic tradition that began with Freud and was systematized by Anna Freud and later clinicians: unconscious strategies for managing anxiety and conflict. Each entry is a short description of the move."
  use_when[2]: You are explaining psychodynamic vocabulary or reading clinical or literary material that uses it.,You want a consistent set of named patterns when discussing coping behavior in plain language.
  caveats[2]: "This is an interpretive framework from clinical practice, not a list of experimentally isolated mechanisms; it is hard to falsify an individual attribution.","Labeling a specific person's behavior with one of these terms is an inference, not an observation."
  related[2]: attachment-styles,cognitive-biases
  category: Psychology
  category_slug: psychology
  tags: "psychology,defense,psychoanalysis"
  view_count: 0
  entry_count: 20
  fields[2]{section,field,type,example}:
    data,mechanism,string,Repression
    data,description,string,Keeping threatening thoughts from awareness.
data[20]{mechanism,description}:
  Repression,Keeping threatening thoughts from awareness.
  Denial,Refusing to accept reality or facts.
  Projection,Attributing one's own unacceptable impulses to others.
  Displacement,Redirecting emotions from a threatening target to a safer one.
  Sublimation,Channeling unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable actions.
  Rationalization,Creating logical explanations to justify behavior.
  Reaction Formation,Acting opposite to one's true feelings.
  Regression,Reverting to behavior typical of an earlier developmental stage under stress.
  Intellectualization,Dealing with an emotional situation through abstract analysis that avoids feeling it.
  Isolation of Affect,Recalling an event accurately while detaching the emotion that belongs with it.
  Undoing,Trying to cancel out a perceived wrong with a symbolic act or its opposite.
  Compensation,Overachieving in one area to offset a perceived weakness in another.
  Identification,"Adopting the qualities of a person or group, often an admired or feared one, to relieve anxiety."
  Splitting,"Seeing people or situations as entirely good or entirely bad, without integrating both."
  Suppression,"Consciously deciding to put a distressing thought aside for later, in contrast to unconscious repression."
  Humor,Expressing a painful or uncomfortable idea in a way that allows distance and shared relief.
  Altruism,"Meeting one's own needs indirectly by helping others, usually regarded as a mature defense."
  Dissociation,"A temporary disruption in the integration of consciousness, memory or identity under overwhelming stress."
  Acting Out,Expressing an unconscious conflict through action instead of words or reflection.
  Passive Aggression,"Expressing hostility indirectly through procrastination, sulking or intentional inefficiency."