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Defense mechanism
Defense mechanism Automatic psychological process that protects the individual against anxiety and from awareness of internal or external stressors or dangers. Defense mechanisms mediate the individual's reaction to emotional conflicts and to external stressors. Some defense mechanisms (e.g., projection, splitting, and acting out) are almost invariably maladaptive. Others, such as suppression and denial, may be either maladaptive or adaptive, depending on their severity, their inflexibility, and the context in which they occur.
RELATED TERMS--------------------------------------
Psychological
Pertaining to mental life as manifested through language and behavior.
Anxiety
A psychological and/or biological response to stress. Feelings of anxiety involve discomforting apprehension or concern, which may include symptoms such as cognitive difficulties, hypersensitivity, dizziness, muscular weakness, breathing difficulties, irregular heart beat, sweating, and sensations of fear. Typically, anxiety is a natural and healthy response to life experiences. However, exaggerated or chronic anxiety often indicates an anxiety disorder. Anxiety can be produced by external stress (exogenous anxiety) or internal stress (endogenous anxiety).
Projection
A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, in which what is emotionally unacceptable in the self is unconsciously rejected and attributed (projected) to others.
Splitting
A mental mechanism in which the self or others are reviewed as all good or all bad, with failure to integrate the positive and negative qualities of self and others into cohesive images. Often the person alternately idealizes and devalues the same person.
Suppression
A mechanism for producing a specific state of immunologic unresponsiveness by the induction of suppressor T cells. This type of unresponsiveness is passively transferable by suppressor T cells or their soluble products.
Denial
A defense mechanism where certain information is not accessed by the conscious mind. Denial is related to repression, a similar defense mechanism, but denial is more pronounced or intense. Denial involves some impairment of reality. Denial would be operating (as an example) if a cardiac patient who has been warned about the potential fatal outcome of engaging in heavy work, decides to start building a wall of heavy stones.
SIMILAR TERMS--------------------------------------
Defecation
The passage of bowel contents through the rectum and anus.
Defecation syncope
The temporary loss of consciousness (syncope) upon defecating (having a bowel movement). Syncope is the temporary loss of consciousness or, in plain English, fainting. The situations that trigger this reaction are diverse and include having blood drawn, straining while urinating (micturition syncope) or defecating, coughing or swallowing. The reaction also can be due to the emotional stress of fear or pain.
Defect, atrial septal (ASD)
A hole in the septum, the wall, between the atria, the upper chambers of the heart. Commonly called an ASD. ASDs are a major class of congenital cardiac malformation.
Defect, enzyme
An abnormality in the protein (enzyme) important in catalyzing a normal biochemical reaction in the body. Disorders result from a deficiency (or functional abnormality) of an enzyme.
Defect, neural tube
A major birth defect caused by abnormal development of the neural tube, the structure present during embryonic life which gives rise to the central nervous system - the brain and spinal cord. Neural tube defects (NTDs) are among the most common birth defects that cause infant mortality (death) and serious disability.
Defect, ventricular septal (VSD)
A hole in the septum (the wall) between the lower chambers of the heart (the ventricles).
Defeminization
The developmental process in which feminization is inhibited or suppressed. In females the term applies chiefly to defeminization of the brain attributed to a hormonal anomaly in prenatal life.
Defensin
A family of potent antibiotics made within the body by neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) and macrophages (cells that can engulf foreign particles). The defensins play important roles against invading microbes. They act against bacteria, fungi and viruses by binding to their membranes and increasing membrane permeability. On a chemical level, the defensins are small peptides unusually rich in the amino acid cysteine (Cys).The human defensins are classified into the alpha-defensins and beta-defensins on the basis of their sequence homology and their Cys residues.
Defensive medicine
Medical practices designed to avert the future possibility of malpractice suits. In defensive medicine, responses are undertaken primarily to avoid liability rather than to benefit the patient. Doctors may order tests, procedures, or visits, or avoid high-risk patients or procedures primarily (but not necessarily solely) to reduce their exposure to malpractice liability. Defensive medicine is one of the least desirable effects of the rise in medical litigation. Defensive medicine increases the cost of health care and may expose patients to unnecessary risks.
Deferoxamine mesylate
Deferoxamine mesylate is a prescription or over-the-counter drug which is (or once was) approved in the United States and possibly in other countries. Active ingredient(s): deferoxamine mesylate .
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Diphtheritic membrane
A thin coating on the surface of an epithelial lined organ (e.g. intestine) that is composed of necrotic cellular debris, inflammatory cells and fibrin.
Dysgenesis
Defective embryonic development.
Dystopia
Displacement.
Da Costa's syndrome
Neurocirculatory asthenia; "soldier's heart"; a functional disorder of the circulatory system that is usually a part of an anxiety state or secondary to hyperventilation.
Decompensation
The deterioration of existing defenses, leading to an exacerbation of pathological behavior.
Defense mechanism
Déjà vu
A paramnesia consisting of the sensation or illusion that one is seeing what one has seen before
Delusion
A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith). When a false belief involves a value judgment, it is regarded as a delusion only when the judgment is so extreme as to defy credibility. Delusional conviction occurs on a continuum and can sometimes be inferred from an individual's behavior. It is often difficult to distinguish between a delusion and an overvalued idea (in which case the individual has an unreasonable belief or idea but does not hold it as firmly as is the case with a delusion). Delusions are subdivided according to their content. Some of the more common types are: bizarre; delusional jealousy; grandiose; delusion of reference; persecutory; somatic; thought broadcasting; thought insertion.
Delusional jealousy
The delusion that one's sexual partner is unfaithful. erotomanic A delusion that another person, usually of higher status, is in love with the individual.
Delusion of reference
A delusion whose theme is that events, objects, or other persons in one's immediate environment have a particular and unusual significance. These delusions are usually of a negative or pejorative nature, but also may be grandiose in content. This differs from an idea of reference, in which the false belief is not as firmly held nor as fully organized into a true belief.
Denial
A defense mechanism where certain information is not accessed by the conscious mind. Denial is related to repression, a similar defense mechanism, but denial is more pronounced or intense. Denial involves some impairment of reality. Denial would be operating (as an example) if a cardiac patient who has been warned about the potential fatal outcome of engaging in heavy work, decides to start building a wall of heavy stones.
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