The most prominent psychological defense mechanisms, including repression, denial, idealization, splitting and projection. This is the category for you.
Twice within the last six months, I’ve heard the 18-year-old son of friends use the expression “put to shame.” The first time, he told me that Lea Michele’s rendition (Glee) of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” put Barbra Streisand’s version to shame (I beg to differ). More recently, he told me that a certain designer’s […]
Snobbery and Pretentiousness Read More »
I’ve been meaning to write this post for more than a year now; from the beginning, I’ve had this particular title in mind although I’m not 100% sure that it’s the right one. If anyone has a better suggestion for how to name this particular mental process, feel free to submit a comment. I call
Projecting and the Law of False Attribution Read More »
I haven’t written a post in two weeks — unusual for me — because during that period, I have felt almost overwhelmed by the events in my life, mostly enjoyable and of great meaning to me: my oldest son’s 21st birthday, my middle child’s high school graduation, my daughter’s promotion from middle school, two flights
‘Hard’ and ‘Soft’ as Character Traits Read More »
Clients often react to their therapists’ vacation breaks as a kind of “abandonment”, responding in ways that shed light on their feelings about neediness and dependency.
Vacation Breaks in Psychotherapy and Defenses Against Need Read More »
If psychotherapy is to be effective, the client must to a degree become emotionally dependent upon the therapist.
Emotional Dependency in Psychotherapy Read More »
The upcoming revision to the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual will purportedly eliminate Asperger’s Syndrome as a diagnosis, once again calling into question the scientific precision and validity of psychological diagnosis.
Autism Symptoms Get a Second Look Read More »
Mindfulness meditation techniques are a useful adjunct to psychotherapy, allowing you to see your defense mechanisms in action and to disengage from them, rather than a replacement for it.
Anxiety Symptoms, Mindfulness and the Enlargement of the Self Read More »
Reaction formation, like all defense mechanisms, is an unconscious process. People with conscious but secret desires they publicly denounce in others are not resorting to reaction formation; they are hypocrites.
Defense Mechanisms VII: Reaction Formation (Not to be Confused with Hypocrisy) Read More »
Unconscious rage plays an important role in depression symptoms. Bringing that rage into awareness often leads to an improvement in those symptoms.
Depression Symptoms and the Role of Rage Read More »
Early failures in attachment lead to the development of defense mechanisms, permanently structured into the brain’s neurology as it develops. This lasting damage does NOT mean that real and meaningful change is impossible.
Attachment Theory and the Tenacity of Defense Mechanisms Read More »