defence mechanism

n 1. (Psychoanalysis) psychoanal a usually unconscious mental process designed to reduce the anxiety, shame, etc, associated with instinctive desires 2. (Physiology) physiol the protective response of the body against disease organisms

Thesaurus

Noun

defence mechanism - (psychiatry) an unconscious process that tries to reduce the anxiety associated with instinctive desiresdefence, defence reaction, defense mechanism, defense reaction, defenseunconscious process, process - a mental process that you are not directly aware of; "the process of denial"psychiatry, psychological medicine, psychopathology - the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorderscompensation - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that conceals your undesirable shortcomings by exaggerating desirable behaviorsconversion - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism represses emotional conflicts which are then converted into physical symptoms that have no organic basisdenial - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that denies painful thoughtsdisplacement - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that transfers affect or reaction from the original object to some more acceptable oneidealisation, idealization - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that splits something you are ambivalent about into two representations--one good and one badintellectualisation, intellectualization - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that uses reasoning to block out emotional stress and conflictisolation - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which memory of an unacceptable act or impulse is separated from the emotion originally associated with itprojection - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism by which your own traits and emotions are attributed to someone elsepsychoanalytic process - a process that is assumed to occur in psychoanalytic theoryrationalisation, rationalization - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism by which your true motivation is concealed by explaining your actions and feelings in a way that is not threateningreaction 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; "his strict morality is just a reaction formation to hide his sexual drive"regression - (psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which you flee from reality by assuming a more infantile staterepression - (psychiatry) the classical defense mechanism that protects you from impulses or ideas that would cause anxiety by preventing them from becoming conscious

Translations

defence mechanism

(PSYCHOANALYSIS) the method by which the EGO transforms the energies of the ID to make them acceptable to reality. Defence mechanisms reduce biological tension and mental anxiety The main defence mechanisms are:

denial, where the instinctual urge is inhibited;
repression, where it is made completely unconscious;
projection, where the urge is inhibited in the self but attributed to another person;
reaction formation, where the energies of the ID are redirected in the opposite direction;
intellectualization, where unacceptable emotions are transformed by explanations making excuses for the undesirable behaviour;
sublimation, where the energy of the ID is directed from the primary, but unacceptable, object to one that is socially acceptable. See also FREUD, LACAN.

defence mechanism