DEFENCE MECHANISM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does defence mechanism mean? 

• DEFENCE MECHANISM (noun)
  The noun DEFENCE MECHANISM has 1 sense:

1. (psychiatry) an unconscious process that tries to reduce the anxiety associated with instinctive desires

  Familiarity information: DEFENCE MECHANISM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEFENCE MECHANISM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

defence; defence mechanism; defence reaction; defense; defense mechanism; defense reaction

Hypernyms ("defence mechanism" is a kind of...):

process; unconscious process (a mental process that you are not directly aware of)

psychoanalytic process (a process that is assumed to occur in psychoanalytic theory)

Domain category:

psychiatry; psychological medicine; psychopathology (the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "defence mechanism"):

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)

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)

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)