English > defense mechanism: 1 sense > noun 1, process| Meaning | (psychiatry) an unconscious process that tries to reduce the anxiety associated with instinctive desires. |
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| Synonyms | defense reaction, defence mechanism, defence reaction, defense, defence |
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| Category | psychiatry, psychopathology, psychological medicine | The branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders |
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| Narrower | compensation | (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that conceals your undesirable shortcomings by exaggerating desirable behaviors |
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| 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 |
| idealization, idealisation | (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that splits something you are ambivalent about into two representations--one good and one bad |
| intellectualization, intellectualisation | (psychiatry) a defense mechanism that uses reasoning to block out emotional stress and conflict / conflict / conflict / conflict |
| isolation | (psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which memory of an unacceptable act or impulse is separated from the emotion originally / originally associated with it |
| projection | (psychiatry) a defense mechanism by which your own traits and emotions are attributed to someone else |
| rationalization, rationalisation | (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 / 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 |
| Broader | process, unconscious process | A mental process that you are not directly aware of |
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| psychoanalytic process | A process that is assumed to occur in psychoanalytic theory |
| Spanish | mecanismo de defensa |
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| Catalan | mecanisme de defensa |
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