Related Character Structure &

Psychopathology (when habitual, fails to do Effect of onesided use on interpersonal

Defense Definition Dimensions Advantage & Disadvantage Example
job, & to the exclusion of other ways of relationships & society
responding to anxiety & coping mw119)

dimensions' mw98; we all have them, they provide the basic foundations of everyon'es psychology; 'they pose a problem only if one lacks more mature psychological skills of if these defenses are persistently
reality principle; lack of appreciation of the separateness & constancy of those outside the self; operate 'in a global, undifferentiated way in a person's total sensorium, fusing cognitive, affective, & behavioral
Primary (Primitive) Defensive Processes: 'those that involve the boundary between the self and the outer world'; characterized by two qualities of preverbal phase of development: lack of attainment of the
Primitive Withdrawal psychological withdrawal into a different
(mw100-101; cf. DSM state of consciousness, incl. substituting
p.809: 'autistic internal fantasy for the stresses of relating to sensitive and perceptive of others' feelings, found in people of remarkable creativity: 'artists,
fantasy') others
used to the exclusion of possible others' mw99; 'it is the absence of mature defenses, not the presence of primitive ones, that defines borderline or psychotic structure' mw100
adaptive origin: baby's self-protective response when overstimulated or distressed, e.g. retreat from social or interpersonal
Advantage: while it involves a psychological
may fall asleep; resistance to engage on feeling level; serious level: resistance to mental situations; disadvantage: removes person
schizoid character; may also play role in escape from reality, it requires little
health workers; healthier level: though not able to express their own feeling, may be highly from active participation in interpersonal "He just fiddles with the TV remote control
addictive propensity 'to use chemicals to distortion of it; disadvantage: removes
problem solving; those who love them find it and refuses to answer me"
alter one's consciousness' person from active participation in
writers, theoretical scientiests, philosophers, religious mystics, & other highly talented onlookers' gifted with hard to get an emotional response from
interpersonal problem solving.
standing back and provide original commentary. them

Denial (mw101-103; manic character (hypomanic [hypo=little] or

cyclothymic ['alternating emotion' as Pollyana-like individual who insist that
also at work in most of adaptive origin: 'archaic process rooted in the child's egocentrism', prelogical conviction: 'If Advantage: may be lifesaving in crises or everything is always fine & for the best;
mature defenses, e.g., I don't acknowledge it, it isn't happening', 'magic'; may be useful, e.g., denying hurt feelings oscillating between manic denial &
Refusal to accept that unpleasant emergencies, as 'keeping one's head'; may deny abuse by partner; parents may Use of spirituality ['it was the will of God']
together with
experiences are happening, e.g., 'this is not in situation in which it would be unwise to cry; serious level: bipolar illness; healthier level: depressive collapse, short of bipolar illness]: disadventage: depressive underside exacts ignore evidence of sexual molestation of their to refuse mourning losses or to flee into
rationalization or can be delightful, found in many comedians & entertainers who show quick wit, elevated energy, denial of limitations, whether physical (e.g.
happening' mw99 psychological price often hard to see by children 'experiences of rapture & overwhelming
reaction-formation playfulness with words, & infectious high spirits characteristic of those 'who successfully screen out and sleep, nutrition), finances, weaknesses, 'even
others exhilaration' in the face of negative
when one experiences transform painful affects for long periods of time', but may have depressive underside kept private. their mortality'; mania makes 'the painful experiences
rejection facts of life' 'psychologicically insignificant'

adaptive origin: newborn's 'primary narcissism' [Freud] or 'primary egocentrism' [Piaget], in

which baby experiences self as source of all events internally, magically elicited by baby;
this is first experience of sense of control & agency; then transferred to caregivers as
Advantage: in adulthood, feel a natural kind If feeling of impending luck is followed by
'secondary or derived omnipotence'; this development of illusion of one's & caregiver's Psychopathic (or later terms 'sociopathic',
Omnipotent Control of 'high' when we exert our will; conscious have as central objective to make their influence winning some gamble, sense of
Fantasy that one is in control of the world omnipotence is precondition for mature adult's coming to terms with fact that neither 'antisocial'), if personality is structured
(mw103-104) manipulation as way of avoiding anxiety and felt; may be manipulative; coercive omnipotent control may be felt; 'getting
one's own or any other person's potency is boundless mw103-104; delight in 'getting over around this defense over on' someone; manipulation
maintaining self-esteem;
on' other people; serious: may become criminal; on healthier level: found in businesses that
require risk taking, politics, military, CIA, sales professions, cult leaders, evangelists, ad & entertainment
industries, where potential to wield raw power is high mw104

narcissistic character: search for perfection

adaptive origin: trust in parents in face of realities out of one's control, e.g., hostility, being put on a pedestal is only the precursor to
both thru merger with idealized objects & Advantage: sense of protection by e.g., when 900 followers of Jim Jones
Primitive Idealization vulnerability to illness & misfortune, mortality, & other terrors; healthier level: 'normal being knocked off'; others feel as if this defense
Primitive fantasy of the omnipotence of with efforts to perfect the self; need for omnipotent other; hope to be free of shame; willingly drank cyanide in Gayana in 1978:
(& Devaluation) idealization is an essential component of mature love'; deidealization also normal part of puts a straightjacket of perfection on them,
caregivers and later substitutes constant reassurance of their 'attractiveness, disadvantage: imperfections in self & others the greater once feeling of dependency,
(mw105-106) separation-individuation process; by idealizing other, one gets narcissistic satisfaction of which they now have to live up to;
power, fame, & importance to others (i.e., are hard to bear; doomed to disappointment the greater the temptation to idealize
being associated with and recognized by that 'perfect' other. megaexpectations can feel irritating.
perfection) results from this defense

projection & introjection as two sides of the

same psychological coin: 'projection is the
process whereby what is inside is
misunderstood as coming from outside';
Projection,
'introjection is the process whereby what is
Introjection, &
outside is misunderstood as coming from
Projective
inside'; projective identification: fusion of
Identification (mw107-
projective & introjective mechanisms -
112)
project internal objects on another person
and get that person 'to behave like those
objects, as if the target person had those
same introjects' mw110
Paranoid character uses projection as main
way of understanding and coping with life;
while introjection 'crosses all diagnostic
projection: when benign, ego observes it, is ego alien; when serious: ego syntonic & person
boundaries', it is particularly evident in
experiences what is projected as an accurate depiction of another person's state of
sadism, explosivity, and impulsivity; and in
mindintrojection: benign form: a primitive identification with important others; projective
depression related to experience of loss of
identification can lead to 'very primitive ways of perceiving reality, short of psychosis',
loved ones: 'shadow of the object fell upon
induced countertransference
the ego' (Freud); borderline personality
organization, esp. borderline levels of
paranoid personality
e.g., someone who is afraid of losing touch
with reality may feel more 'normal' if s/he
Advantage: normal reaction to trauma to can induce in another person the feelings
protect self, to be 'outside' rather than inside s/he thinks they already have. E.g.,
usually history of abuse, usually but not limited
in face of sense of impending obliteration; accusatory statement by a men in intake
to sexual abuse
disadvantage: 'autohypnotic' reenactments interview 'You shrinks all love to sit back
and judge people, and I don't give a shit
of past painful situations
what you think!' --> may induce therapist
to feel judgmental of this person

seeing world dualistically in terms of

based on developmental stage prior to object constancy, when one feels all good when the
To be either in an all-good or all-bad ego
Splitting of the Ego
state toward an object in one's world, which
(mw112-114)
is then seen as either all good or bad;
Advantage: functions to reduce anxiety and to the internal split may recreated externally
'good vs. evil, God vs the devil,
object is there and all bad [because one cannot hold the 'object' in one's mind] when the maintain self-esteem; disadvantage: may with others, via projective identification,
borderline states; borderline patients of democracy vs communism' etc.; in
object is gone; need to organize perceptions by assigning good or bad valences to alienate others; in mental health settings, staff where some are seen as all good and others
various diagnosis therapy: pt. may one week see
everything in the world; no tolerance of ambivalence, as there is no object constancy may get split into those who are sympathetic as all bad, all of whom in turn start behaving
and those who feel hostile therapist as all good and next week as
attained yet; functions to reduce anxiety and maintain self-esteem like it; wear those who care for them out
all bad

Advantage: a coping mechanism to survive history of abuse, 'usually including but not
an experience is totally cut off from conscious experience mw123; normal response to
To split off "partial selves, each of which severe psychic trauma by cutting off pain, limited to sexual abuse' mw332; emotional
trauma, under horrific abuse, conviction of imminent death, out-of-body-experience;
Dissociation (mw114- performs certain functions" mw334; "a Dissociative Identity Disorder [formerly terror, horror, & the conviction of imminent responses to abuse were punished with more
different from other primary defenses: not all have dissocation, even though we all are Movie Sybil (1973);
115) single person with the subjective experience 'Multiple Personality Disorder'] death; disadvantage: tendency of defense to abuse: 'now I'll really give you something to
capable, but most of us are fortunate not to run into conditions under which it emerges
of different selves" mw324 operate automatically under conditions when cry about' mw333; most dissociative people
mw114; only people capable of being hypnotized can use this defense
one's survival is not realistically at risk are quite lovable

Based on Nancy McWilliams, Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (1994); prepared by Matthias Beier, PhD
 Related Character Structure &
Psychopathology (when habitual, fails to do Effect of onesided use on interpersonal
Defense Definition Dimensions Advantage & Disadvantage Example
job, & to the exclusion of other ways of relationships & society
responding to anxiety & coping mw119)

Secondary (Higher-Order) Defensive Processes: 'deal with internal boundaries, such as those between the ego or superego and the id, or between the observing and experiencing parts of the ego' mw98; 'healthier people' who

only present when 'an idea or emotion or perception has become consciously inaccessible Advantage: keeps unpleasant facts about self
typically use these defenses, tend to use varying defenses and hence 'no single personality types' 'reflect an overdependence on them' mw134 (NB: not a complete list, as virtually any psychological process can be used

When experiencing a passing fantasy of

because of its power to upset ' mw118; requires prior attainment of a sense of wholeness or other or events from consciousness; often experience in childhood of having one's
stealing jewlery laid out at a Tiffany's
motivated forgetting or egnoring, e.g., 'this and continuity of self before one is capable of handling disturbing impulses by repression (if disadvantage: because the repressed idea or sexuality harshly controlled, or being
Repression (mw118- Hysterical, Histrionic personality; also window: looking into window and
happened, but I'll forget about it because it's not attained, then more primitive defenses like denial, projection, & splitting) mw119; emotion continuous to have unconscious ridiculed for showing emotion, or exposed to
120) present in PTSD running into the opposite direction
too painful' mw99 healthier level: momentarily forgetting name of a person one introduces if there was ucs power to upset, compromises internal angry and overbearing outbursts, especially
(rather than tolerating fantasy while
negative feeling to person; is 'most basic' higher orderdefense; element present in most freedom and contributes to 'uncontrollable' from a father (figure) mw308-309
staying in front of window)
higher-order defenses, e.g., reaction formation, isolation symptoms

Advantage: provides relief from stress of

e.g., use of regression to the sick role as a primary means of coping with upsetting aspects; e.g., lashing out at partner after attaining
Regression (mw120- reverting unconsciously to old habits of Somatization & Hypochondriasis, Infantile growth and change that feels too much; anyone, if tired enough, may begin to
but unconscious! ; caution: people can get sick because they are unconsciously depressed, some new level of intimacy --> go back to
122) though, feeling, and behavior Personality (not in DSM after 2nd ed) disadvantage: often resistant to change whine, as in earlier age.
but they can also get depressed because they are physically ill and in need of care! earlier way of relating;
because of the 'secondary' gain of being ill

affect connected with an idea may either be repressed or denied; idea of a feeling is
The affective aspect of an experience or idea theoretically not acceptable; "psychic numbing" in face of catastrophe (Lifton); 'isolation is Advantage: able to stay calm and rational in
early experience of control of feelings and
is sequestered from its cognitive dimension = a degree more discriminative than dissociation: The experience is not totally obliterated otherwise intensely emotional situations; e.g., surgeons could not work unless
Obsessive character: primary defens of the message that one should be able to
Isolation (mw122- isolating feeling from knowing; (NOT same as from conscious experience, but its emotional meaning is cut off' mw123: is most primitive disadvantage: inability to be aware of feeling they isolate affect (their own distress,
isolation, life pattern ov overvaluing thinking control them; often much moral disapproval
123) isolating in the sense of physical remove from of the "intellectual defenses" and 'the basic unit of psychological operation in mechanism makes it difficult to work with feelings, e.g., empathy, revulsion, sadism etc.) when
& undervaluing feeling mw123 and control in interpersonal relationships;
interpersonal relationships!) mw120; will say like intellectualization, rationalization, and moralization' which have in common the unconscious anxiety, that evidently get in the cutting flesh
may be experienced as stoic, Mr. Spock-like
"I have no feeling" 'relegation to unconsciousness of the personal, gut-level implications of any situation or way of the person's life.
idea or occurance' mw123
defensively mw117)

talking about feelings that strike listeners as the idea of a feeling, e.g., anger, is theoretically acceptable to a person, but the actual
Advantage: can talk about feeling and gives e.g., speak about trauma in matter of
emotionless; e.g, saying in a casual, detached expression of it, e.g., through tone of voice, body language, is inhibited; 'handles ordinary in many characters in neurotic & borderline perceived as insensitive, heady; have
Intellectualization impression as if feeling. Disadvantage: may fact way, e.g., rape (but not
tone, maybe even with a smile "I do feel emotional overload in the same way that isolation handles traumatic overstimulation' range; various difficulty in emotional intimacy
have dull, hollow experience of life rationalizing it)
naturally angry about that" mw124

Advantage: reconciles us to fact that some

Make up reasons for why some distress or
Rationalization One unconsciously seeks cognitively acceptable grounds for one's direction; conversts what in many characters in neurotic & borderline things are not attainable; disadvantage: may be used to justify doing abusive things 'for e.g., that abuse was for the better, 'made
loss or not getting what one wanted is not as
(mw124-125) the person already wants into reasonable language range; various virtually anything can be rationalized, incl. other's good'; me a stronger person'
bad as one thought
the most horrific things

Advantage: gives sense of justification for an e.g., belief of colonialists that pain of
one seeks ways to feel one has moral reasons for pursuing a certain direction; jastifies and experienced as self-righteous; may put others in
impulse otherwise experienced as exploitation was justified because
Moralization (mw125- make morally obligatory ; may be used 'as a developmentally advanced version of Moral masochism; also in some obsessive dilemma: if one does not live up to or join them
one seeks to feel it is one's duty to pursue questionable; disadvantage: may be colonialization brough higher standards of
127) splitting'; 'resolves, by recourse to principle, mixed feelings that the evolving self has and compulsive people in the moralization, one may be devalued as
maddeningly impervious to therapeutic civilization to the people; Inquisition;
become able to suffer'mw126 immoral
influence abusing child for their own good

Advantage: permits 'two conflicting

permits two conflicting conditions to exist Whereas isolation involves a rift between cognition & emotion, in compartmentalization, conditions to exist without conscious deploring prejudice and savoring ethnic
Compartmentalizatio acting with some by highest standards, and with
whithout conscious confusion, guilt, shame, ther is a rift between incompatible cognitive sets. E.g., professed belief in the Golden Rule various, often on borderline level confusion, guilt, shame, or anxiety'; jokes; e.g., saints in public sphere &
n (mw127) some in abusive ways
or anxiety and looking out for Number One disadvantage: may lead to shamefule abusive in private sphere
exposure of moral contradictions.

the unconscious effort to counterbalance Advantage: temporarily relief from

is more grown-up version of omnipotent control; person may be open to see it as compulsive character, neutral as to moral e.g., (religious) effort to atone for sins;
Undoing (mw127- some affect -- usually guilt or shame -- with undesirable affect; disadvantage: thought
superstitious behavior. NB: does not refer to more abstract wish to reverse something that content: one can be compulsive drinker or Often originates out of guilt or shame altruism due to inadvertant offense as a
129) an attitude or behavior that will magically may be equated with the deed, which
happened, but instead refers to undoing something the person feels they did! compulsive humanitarian child;
erase it. becomes further source of anxiety

Based on Nancy McWilliams, Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (1994); prepared by Matthias Beier, PhD
 Related Character Structure &
Psychopathology (when habitual, fails to do Effect of onesided use on interpersonal
Defense Definition Dimensions Advantage & Disadvantage Example
job, & to the exclusion of other ways of relationships & society
responding to anxiety & coping mw119)
people' who typically use these defenses, tend to use varying defenses and hence 'no single personality types' 'reflect an overdependence on them' mw134 (NB: not a complete list, as virtually any psychological process
Secondary (Higher-Order) Defensive Processes: 'deal with internal boundaries, such as those between the ego or superego and the id, or between the observing and experiencing parts of the ego' mw98; 'healthier

Turning against the turning negative affect or attitude from an
Self (mw129-130)
external object toward the self
fear of offending others; often person found e.g., if one feels critical of an authority but
Advantage: gives the self the illusion to be in
however unpleasant self-criticism may be, it is experienced as preferrable 'to themselves in childhood in situations where fears one will lose the authority's goodwill
control by turning a difficult uncontrollable
acknowledging a realistic threat to one's survival under conditions in which one has no depression; masochism; in healthier, neurotic parents may not have had control, or that were if one challengas them, then it feels safter
outside situation into something managable:
power to change things; negative affect usually turned inward from a person to whom one spectrum simply not controllable; learned to take to turn the critical ideas on oneself; e.g.,
one's self; disadvantage: continuous even in
feels dependent for security responsibility as way of trying to make such be critical of self for not being good
situations that are not uncontrollable
situation for self and parents better; enough

Advantage: reduces the anxiety the drive,

emotion, preoccupation, or behavior caused e.g., sexual fetishes --> from person to
redirection of a drive, emotion, while turning against self may involve displacement, displacement is more broadly when it was associated with the original thing; scapegoating in forms of prejudice
Displacement preoccupation, or behavior from its initial or understood; one can displace due to anxiety onto almost anything: other person (e.g., that target; disadvantage: the new target, e.g., a fearful preoccupation with many situations may
Phobia such as racism, sexism, heterosexism;
(mw130-131) natural object to another because its original home wrecker, in an affair); Bowen's 'triangulation' is displacement phenomenon; anxiety spider in a phobia that displaced, for
stifle person's interpersonal relationships;
transference: feeling from early objects
direction is for some reasonanxiety ridden itself may be displaced from one area of body etc. to another instance, mfears of maternal engulfment, displaced to therapist
may leave person in panic, not knowing why;
disruptive
Advantage: at age when finer discriminations the proverbial 'loving someone to death':
an emotion is turned into its opposite; more Prominent in character structures in which
is 'more complex form of denial of feeling defended against than a simple refusal to feel between shades of feelings and feelings and hugging too hard etc.; a way of handling
Reaction Formation accurately: functions to deny ambivalence: 'hostile feelings & aggressive strivings' are e.g., hatred into love, or idealization into
that emotion' mw102; conversion of a negative into a positive affect or vice versa mw131; actions are not yet maturationally possible, jeaulousy: e.g., displaced siblings who turn their
(mw131-133) convince self that all that is felt is one polarity paramount: paranoid & obsessive contempt
typical that some of the disowned affect 'leaks through' this may be adaptive to handle negative rivalrous feelings into loving ones, but may do it
of a complex emotional response compulsive character in ostentatious or aggressive ways;
feelings;

e.g., turning from victim into victimizer; or:

Advantage: allows one to 'shift the power becoming nurturing when one does not
switch from position of subject to object or e.g., in therapy: a patient may make himself the
can be used defensively mw117)

Reversal (mw133- e.g., if desire to be loved not met, one decides to love and unconsciously identifies with the aspects of a transaction so that one is in the get one's own needs to be nurtured met:
vice versa; reversing desires into their used by various personality types therapist and turn the therapist into the patient
134) loved person's gratification; initiating rather than the responding role', the caring for someone else then meets
opposite (cf. movie: 'What about Bob'!)
e.g., passive into active; the need to be nurtured, but without it
being evident to others

Advantage: to feel less powerful when e.g., toddler who deals with fear of
is the emotional basis of psychological growth & change in life; only problematic under threatened by aggression; to feel one can thought to emerge out of coping with hostile punishment from mommy for his hostile
Identification certain circumstances; [Beier: on psychotic level: not just become like other person, but used by various personality types; lack of role hold onto someone lost; disadvantage: when wishes to adults experienced as threatening by impulses bybecoming her: 'then I have her
('oedipal level') becoming (like) another person rather become or be the other person!]; typically involves 'taking in of what is loved and a models for identification in adolescence may no longer adaptive, it may turn into wanting to become like them; therapeutic power inside me rather than outside' ;
(mw135-138) defensive becoming like what is feared'; oedipal scenario as basis for 'identification with the be one reason for increase in teen suicides opposite, e.g., if one once gain respect from relationship: major part is to rework old and e.g., 'conversion experiences contain a
aggressor': can't defeat him, so might as well be like him being tough as child, now as adult may now problematic identifications heavy component of defensive
backfire identification

enacting a frightening scenario in order to get from a passive into an active role; originally impulsive personalities (e.g., hysteria,
referred to a p not saying something to therapist but instead 'acting it out' outside the addictions, compulsion, sociopathic); Advantage: not feeling helpless or powerless,
expressing in action what one cannot express may have roots in childhood experience of
Acting Out (mw138- therapy office; contrary to colloquial usage of term, it is not per se negative, but rather certain classes of behaviors: 'exhibitionism, not passive victim, but rather active; e.g., acting out unconscious sexual
in words with the purpose of mastering fears fearing authority's rejectiong of one's feelings
140) characterized by 'the unconscious & fearsome nature of the impulses that propel the voyeurism, sadism, masochism, perversion, & disadvantage: when done in self-destructive scenarios,
that surround it and needs
person into action & the compulsive' way one acts; Freud: we act out what we do not all the 'counter' terms: counterphobia, way
remember counterdependency, counterhostility' etc

considered by some as just one instance of acting out; however, it can be present without Advantage: to cope with terrifying or painful e.g., 'tendency of people to erotize their reaction e.g., hair yanking from childhood
to anyone with superior power'; susceptibility of defensively sexualized to cope with pain,
Sexualization to use sexual activity and fantasy defensively acting out as erotization : one can turn painful feelings into exciting ones in order to control like other defenses, is not in itself situation by using one's capacity for
those in a socially weak position to convert envy which later in life may charge the touch of
(Instinctualization) with the intention of converting a terrifying the pain; attempt to master anxiety, restore self-esteem, offset shame, or distract from problematic; may appear in abusive excitement and life to charge it with different
or fear of mistreatment into sexual scenario is hair in a sexual way; harmful example: if
(mw140-142) or painful experience into excitement inner deadness; gender difference tendency: 'women are apt to sexualize dependency & dynamics meaning; disadvantage: may make one reason for importance of laws to protect abuse was sexualized, it may lead to
men to sexualize aggression' susceptable to exploitation and abuse employees, students etc. compulsive recreation of it.

originally meant by Freud in drive model as 'expression of biologically based impulses' 'in a Psychoanalytic therapy: aims at helping
healthy: assumes that 'the infantile parts of
socially valuable form'; considered the healthiest defense for two reasons: 1. beneficial to Advantage: allows one to stop vilifying self patient develop understanding &
redirect desires from something our natures remain alive throughout Enables one to be compassionate also to others;
Sublimation (mw142- species; 2. it discharges the relevant impulse instead of wasting a lot of emotional energy and others and instead seek creative ways of compassion even for 'the most primitive &
unacceptable or distressing to something adulthood. We do not have the choice to to engage in constructive work and creative
144) either transforming it into something differnet (e.g., as reaction formation would do) or using parts of self constructively without disturbing' apsects of the self, in order to
acceptable and gratifying divest ourselves of them; we can only handl production in the social sphere
counteracting it with an opposing force (e.g., denial, repression); redirect aim of impulse denying them expand 'one's freedom to resolve old
them in better or worse ways conflicts in new ways'
from 'forbidden' object to acceptable and also fullfilling object

Based on Nancy McWilliams, Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (1994); prepared by Matthias Beier, PhD