Version June 2024
| Defense mechanisms | Description |
| Primitive defenses | |
| Splitting | Compartmentalizing internal representations of self and others so that conflict is avoided and integration of these representations is not possible |
| Projective identification | A defense involving subtle interpersonal pressure so that the target of a projection takes on characteristics of either an aspect of the self or the internal object that is being projected |
| Projection | Externalizing unacceptable inner impulses and their derivatives by attributing them to someone else |
| Denial | Avoiding awareness of aspects of external realities that are difficult to face by dismissing perceptions that are obvious to everyone else in the environment. What is not perceived is not real, and thus cannot cause pain. The unpleasant aspects that are denied may be replaced by a more pleasant internal fantasy. |
| Disavowal | Dismissing or failing to acknowledge thoughts or feelings that are uncomfortable |
| Schizoid fantasy | Retreating into one's private, internal world to avoid anxiety about interpersonal situations |
| Regression | A partial or total return to earlier patterns of adaptation or behavior |
| Conversion | Development of symbolic physical symptoms and distortions involving the voluntary muscles or special sense organs; symptoms are not under voluntary control and cannot be explained by any physical disorder |
| Undoing | Symbolically acting out in reverse something unacceptable that has already been done or against an impulse which the ego must defend itself |
| Higher-level defenses | |
| Rationalization | Justifying irrational or unacceptable behavior, motives, or feelings by making them appear rational and reasonable through belief in plausible explanations that are false |
| Displacement | Shifting unacceptable feelings associated with one idea or object to another that resembles the original in some way |
| Intellectualization | Using excessive and abstract rational and logical reasoning to avoid difficult feelings |
| Isolation of affect | Separating an idea or impulse from its associated feeling or affect to avoid emotional turmoil |
| Sexualization | Endowing an object or behavior with sexual significance to turn a negative experience into an exciting and stimulating one |
| Reaction formation | Transforming an unacceptable wish or impulse into its opposite |
| Sublimation | Energy associated with unacceptable impulses or wishes is diverted into personally and socially acceptable channels |
| Humor | Finding comic and/or ironic elements in difficult situations to reduce unpleasant affect and personal discomfort |
| Anticipation | Committing oneself to the needs of others over and above one's own needs |
| Suppression | Consciously deciding not to attend to a particular feeling, state, or impulse |
| Repression | Expelling unacceptable ideas or impulses, thus blocking them from entering consciousness (repression is more closely linked with inner states, whereas denial involves external sensory data) |
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