RAMOS, Rency R.

HGENPSY
MAR151 Prof. Christian de Dios

ASSIGNMENT: Define the following and give examples.

1. Conversion
Conversion is a defense mechanism, whereby the anxiety caused by repressed
impulses and feelings are converted into a physical complaint. The symptom
may well be symbolic and dramatic and it often acts as a communication about
the situation.
Extreme symptoms may include paralysis, blindness, deafness, becoming mute
or having a seizure. This happens without any physical damage to affected
organs or their neural connections. Anxiety will bring on these symptoms.
This used to be called, hysteria when Freud was researching.

Example:
A woman witnesses her spouse engaging in an affair and converts the anxiety of
seeing that into blindness. The blindness alleviates the anxiety.

2. Splitting
Splitting is a very common ego defense mechanism. It can be defined as the
division or polarization of beliefs, actions, objects, or persons into good and bad
by focusing selectively on their positive or negative attributes.
When a person holds two thoughts in the mind that are contradictory or otherwise
so uncomfortable, the person will cognitively separate them, not thinking of the
separate thoughts at the same time. It is a distorted way of thinking in which the
positive or negative attributes of a person or event are neither weighed nor
cohesive.

Example:
An inlove teenage girl sees a guy so gentleman and perfect.

3. Intellectualization
Intellectualization is a defense mechanism where the person avoids
uncomfortable emotions by reasoning and focusing on facts and logic. It involves
removing one's self, emotionally, from a stressful event.
Freud believed that memories have both conscious and unconscious aspects,
and that intellectualization allows for the conscious analysis of an event in a way
that does not provoke anxiety.
Jargon is often used as a device of intellectualization. By using complex
terminology, the focus becomes on the words and finer definitions rather than the
human effects.

Example:
A person who has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness might focus on
learning everything about the disease in order to avoid distress and remain
distant from the reality of the situation.
4. Undoing
 Undoing is performing an act to 'undo' a previous unacceptable act or thought.
The person tries to alter the past in some way to avoid bad appearance.
It is often a form of apology, although it may not include the actual act of saying
that you are sorry. Confession is a form of undoing, including that done in a
church to a priest or a secret admission to a close friend.

Example:
A man who has been unkind to his wife buys her flowers (but does not
apologize).

5. Introjection
Introjection occurs as a coping mechanism when we take on attributes of other
people who seem better able to cope with the situation than we do.
According to Sigmund Freud, a person builds his ego and superego by
introjecting the external behavioral traits into his own persona.
This behavior is common among children and parents, in which a child
internalizes and absorbs the characteristics of their parents.

Example:
A child might take on elements of parents personalities or beliefs by adopting
their political ideology, concept of right and wrong, or ideas about sex.

6. Identification
Similar to introjection, but of less intensity and completeness. The unconscious
modelling of one's self upon another person. One may also identify with values
and attitudes of a group.

Example:
A school girl wants her mother to buy her the same kind of shoes her classmates
are wearing; she angrily rejects the idea that she is trying to be like the other girls
and insists that the shoes are truly the best available and are the style she has
always wanted.

REFERENCE/s:
http://interpersonal-compatibility.blogspot.com/2017/01/conversion-defense-mechanisms-by-Freud.html
http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/intellectualization.htm
http://interpersonal-compatibility.blogspot.com/2015/02/intellectualization-defense-mechanism.html
http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/undoing.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undoing_(psychology)
https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/introjection
http://www.coldbacon.com/defenses.html
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201203/self-deception-ii-splitting
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/psychoanalysis/concepts/splitting.htm