Defense Mechanisms - A List of Choices

• accusing
• acting out - giving expression to forbidden desires without concern for negative consequences.
• aggression
• arguing
• analysing.
• assertion
• avoidance
• blaming
• challenging
• cockiness
• compensation - hiding a weakness in one area by excelling or being rewarded in another.
• compliance
• complaining
• compromise
• confusion
• control
• criticism
• deception
• defiance
• denial - refusing to acknowledge the thought or feeling
• devaluation
• discounting
• displacement - channelling thoughts or feelings to a neutral or weaker person or object..
• dissociation
• distrust
• emotional insulation - withdrawing into inaction so one doesn't get hurt.
• explaining
• externalisation - pinpointing outside forces as the cause of our behaviour so we don't have to accept personal responsibility for our actions.
• fantasizing - not paying attention or using daydreams to escape an uncomfortable situation.
• humour
• identification - identifying oneself with a prestigious individual or institution to build one's sense of self-worth.
• intellectualisation - coming up with highly intellectual reasons or convincing arguments to justify the situation and keep attention away from feelings.
• introjection - adopting external values and standards as one's own to ensure those standards are not used against him/her.
• isolation - separating feelings and thoughts that are connected
• isolation of affect - 'thinking' feelings rather than actually experiencing them
• judging
• justifying
• know it all
• laughing it off
• lying
• manipulation
• minimizing - writing off problematic events and behaviors as being too minor to worry about.
• passive aggression - indirect and unassertive expression of aggression towards another.
• projection - perceiving that another has our thoughts or feelings so we don't have to own them.
• rationalization - thinking up reasons to justify what's happening while ignoring one's feelings.
• reaction formation - unconsciously thinking, feeling and acting in ways that are opposite to how we really think and feel.
• regression - slipping back into old, often immature, ways of behaving to release the feelings.
• repression - burying thoughts and feelings in our unconscious so we no longer have memory of them.
• ridicule
• seeking approval
• self-deception
• shouting
• silence
• smiling
• sublimation - channelling socially unacceptable feelings into a socially productive activity.
• suppression - some awareness of a thought or feeling, but we try to hide it.
• threatening
• undoing - doing the opposite of how one feels to try to negate the feelings.
• violence
• withdrawing

Check out our 7 steps to self healing workbook and many other Self Healing Resources.