defense mechanism

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defense mechanism

1. Biology A physiological reaction of an organism used in self-protection, as against infection.

2. Psychology Any of various usually unconscious mental processes, including denial, projection, rationalization, and repression, that protect the ego from shame, anxiety, conflict, loss of self-esteem, or other unacceptable feelings or thoughts.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

defense′ mech`anism

an unconscious process that protects an individual from unacceptable or painful ideas or impulses.

[1890–95]

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Noun

defense mechanism - (psychiatry) an unconscious process that tries to reduce the anxiety associated with instinctive desires

defence, defence mechanism, defence reaction, defense reaction, defense

unconscious 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 disorders

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

psychoanalytic process - a process that is assumed to occur in psychoanalytic theory

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; "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 state

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

References in periodicals archive ?

Rather than being a defense mechanism, tenant service should be a well-planned and consistently delivered program that doesn't fluctuate with the ever-changing marketplace.

The human element: Robert Martin property management

On the other hand, rationalization is a defense mechanism the group frequently used in perilous situations.

Stress and coping: the experience of students at the American University of Beirut during the Lebanese civil war

Ambassador Al-Jubeir stressed that the alliance is based on the international legitimacy, the request from the legitimate president, the principles of self-defense stated in Article 51 of the UN Charter as well as the collective defense mechanism of the Charter of the Arab League.

Ambassador Al-Jubeir: Other Countries Desire to Participate in Restoring Security and Stability in Yeme

In the study led by Evgeny Nudler, PhD, the Julie Wilson Anderson Professor of Biochemistry at NYU School of Medicine, researchers found evidence that H2S acts as a general defense mechanism against oxidative stress, the process through which many antibiotics kill bacteria.

Targeting Bacterial Gas Defenses Allow for Increased Efficacy of Numerous Antibiotics

The "sugar defense mechanism" also accelerates the removal of excess sugar from the bloodstream, mobilizes carbohydrates from the fat cells, and increases the sensitivity of insulin receptors in the signaling pathways, making insulin more efficient.

Emulin

Visit this Web site from the Australian Museum to learn more about the defense mechanism of the sea slug: www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=seahatac

Toxic blast

These results indicate that silkworms have skillfully adapted to the defense mechanism of mulberry leaves.

National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, National Food Research Institute (NIAS) Confirms Unique Properties of Mulberry Leaves

In her book Roughgarden points to many species, including lions, that mate partially as a defense mechanism. "If a male is potentially going to kill a female's offspring, she makes sure she mates with him so that he shares partial paternity of those offspring and therefore has no incentive to kill them," Roughgarden argues.

It's all natural: biologist and transwoman Joan Roughgarden takes on Darwin and science's traditional view of sexuality

RNA silencing was first noticed in plants when attempts to create transgenic plants that overexpressed a natural gene often had the opposite effect; later it was found to be an evolutionarily conserved defense mechanism against plant RNA viruses and other molecular parasites.

How viruses sabotage silencing

Beresford recommends a three-step approach in determining whether a given defense mechanism is primitive, immature, neurotic, or mature.

Look to patient's ego defense for diagnostic clues. (Three-Step Approach)

(There is a small literature in psychology on compensation as a defense mechanism. It lends little support to the use of compensation in social history because its empirical literature is sparse and mixed.)(4)