Personality Disorders and
Defense Mechanisms
Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders
O The DSM-IV is published by the American
Psychiatric Association and provides a
common language and standard criteria for
the classification of mental disorders and
personality types.
What is Mental Illness?
O A disorderly functioning of the mind
O Can be caused by psychological factors
(experiences) or physiological factors (brain
function, disease, genetics)
Categories of Mental Illness
O Anxiety Disorders (i.e. anxiety, phobias, OCD,
anorexia, bulimia)
O Mood Disorders (i.e. depression, bipolar
affective disorder)
O Schizophrenia Disorders (i.e. schizophrenia,
multiple personality disorder)
O Personality Disorders (i.e. psychopathic
disorder, sociopath)
Facts about Mental Illness in
Canada
O 40% of patient visits to family doctors are
O
O
O
O
related to emotional, not physical problems
16% of health expenditures are for psychiatric
disorders
80% of suicides are carried out by people with
depression
2.4% of teenage boys and 7% of teenage girls
suffer from depression
10-25% of North Americans suffer from anxiety
disorders
Mental Disorders….
NEUROSIS: suffers experience high levels of
anxiety or tension in managing their daily lives.
E.g. panic attacks, anxiety, phobias, and O.C.D.
http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/episode/age-ofanxiety.html
PSYCHOSIS: patient loses touch with the real
world, may suffer from hallucinations or
delusions and needs treatment before he/she
can live a life with any degree of normality.
E.g. paranoid schizophrenia
Abnormal Psychology
O Abnormal means “different” from what is usual.
This changes from culture, time, and place.
O Neuroses: mild disorder, ways to escape
(defense mechanisms), unable to cope with a
situation but are generally in touch with reality
and understand the nature of their problems,
seldom requires hospitalization
O Psychoses: serious mental illness, distortion of
reality, confused about time, place, and
understanding of their behaviour, hospitalization
will occur.
Adolf Hitler
How do people respond to dealing
with disorders?
Psychologist Sigmund Freud would
use…
O Defence Mechanisms
What are Defence Mechanisms?
Situations can occur that can challenge your healthy
mental outlook. Wanting to guard yourself against
pain, stress, and frustration in these situations it is
only natural…
Using Defence Mechanisms is one way you care for
your mental health…however, if an individual relies too
heavily on defense mechanisms to avoid their
problems, they may face severe mental health issues.
Defence Mechanisms…
… are behaviour patterns people use to
protect themselves
…they can be positive or negative solutions to
a problem. It depends entirely how they are
used
…when people are aware they are using
defence mechanisms, they are in control of
their actions. They are using the defence
mechanism in an attempt to maintain a
healthy mental state.
Defence Mechanisms…
Some people fail to
realize they are
relying on defence
mechanisms.
In these cases, they
can cause people to
lose touch with
reality…
Repression…
Is the blocking of unacceptable impulses from
consciousness; removing traumatic experiences from our
conscious memory…
“It didn’t happen”…syndrome
Rationalization…
The cognitive reframing of ones perceptions
to protect the ego in the face of changing
realities.
E.g. the promotion one wished for and didn’t
get becomes: “a dead end job for brown
nosers”…
Displacement…
The redirecting of thoughts, feelings and
impulses from an object that gives rise to
anxiety to a safer, more acceptable one.
Replacing a threatening object with a less
threatening one..
E.g. being angry at your boss and yelling at
your dog for its tail knocking over your drink.
Denial…
The refusal to accept reality and to act as if a painful
event, thought or feeling did not exist. One of the
most primitive of defence mechanisms and
characteristic of very early childhood development.
Example: Your mom asks you to ride the lady bug ride
with your younger brother, but you do not want to
ride the “baby rides.” When reminded of the
meltdown you had for not getting to ride the ladybug
ride at the fair the year before you respond “No, I
didn’t, I never wanted to ride that ride. I cried
because it was a really hot day.”
Reaction Formation…
The converting of wishes or impulses that are
perceived to be dangerous into their
opposites; finding reasons why others
shouldn’t do something that we’ve done.
E.g. a woman who is furious at her child and
wishes her harm might become overly
concerned & protective of the child’s(postpartum depression)/you can’t drive in the
United States because its too dangerous.
Projection…
The attribution of one’s undesired impulses
onto another.
E.g. an angry friend accuses their friend of
being angry about something.
“It’s not my fault, you started it…”
Regression…
Is the reversion of an earlier stage of
development in the face of
unacceptable impulses.
E.g. an adolescent who is
overwhelmed with fear, anger,
might become clingy & begin
thumb sucking or bed wetting or
have a temper tantrum
Fantasy / Daydreaming
The channelling of unacceptable or
unattainable desires into imagination; it can
protect ones self esteem as when
educational, occupational, or social
expectations are not being met, one
imagines success in these areas…
Examples: “If I were the boss, I would. . .”
Sublimation..
The channelling of unacceptable social
impulses into more acceptable outlets.
E.g. Anger, competition – Hockey fights
Compensation…
A process of psychologically balancing
perceived weaknesses by emphasizing
strength in other arenas…
The “I’m not a fighter, I’m a lover” philosophy…
Compartmentalization…
A process of separating parts of the self
from awareness of other parts and
behaving as if one had separate sets of
values…
e.g. A soldier is able to kill another human
although he would never harm another
outside of war (he compartmentalizes
his feelings about killing and the horror
to achieve a different goal).
Undoing…
Is the attempt to take back behaviour or
thoughts that are unacceptable.
E.g. Excessively praising someone after having
insulted them…
Add to your knowledge
O Read pages 228-233
O Answer questions:
# 2 (page. 230)
#1-2 (page. 231)
Summarize/define the following terms: NatureDefecit Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorder,
Hoarding, Cyberpychology