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Unselfishly assisting others to avoid negative personal feelings
Woman with poor self-image works in soup kitchen on her day off from work |
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Expression of feeling without causing discomfort
Man with amputated leg makes jokes about one-legged people |
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Rerouting an unacceptable drive in a socially acceptable way
A man whose son was killed by a drunk driver regularly speaks to students about dangers of drunk driving |
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Consciously putting aside but not repressing unwanted feelings
Breast cancer patient decides that she will worry about her illness for only 10 minutes per day |
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Avoiding personally unacceptable feelings by behaving in an attention-getting / socially inappropriate manner
Teenager with terminally ill younger sibling does badly at school and argues with parents at home |
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Not believing personally intolerable facts about reality
Active 50-year old man insists that his angiography that shows that he has an MI is an error |
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Transfer of emotions from an unacceptable to acceptable person or object
Attending physician upset at husband is abrasive to male medical students on her service |
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Unconsciously patterning one's behavior after that of someone more powerful
Man who had a critical, punitive father berates and verbally insults his own son |
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Using the mind's higher functions to avoid experiencing uncomfortable emotions
Physician who has pancreatic cancer excessively discusses statistics and technical details of treatment options for his own terminal illness |
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Failing to experience the feelings associated with a stressful life event, although logically understanding the significance of the event
Without showing any emotion, woman tells husband the results of tests that show her cancer has metastasized |
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Attributing one's own personally unacceptable feelings to others
A man who has sexual feelings for his brother's wife begins to believe that his own wife is cheating on him |
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Giving seemingly reasonable explanations for unacceptable or irrational feelings
A medical student who fails the final genetics exam says that it doesn't matter because it was not an important course |
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Denying unacceptable feelings and adopting opposite attitudes
A man who is unconsciously attracted to a coworker frequently picks fights with her |
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Definition
Appearance of childlike patterns of behavior during stressful situations
A hospitalized 48-year old patient insists on only eating hot dogs, french fries, and ice cream. |
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Turning an unacceptable impulse or feeling into a physical symptom
A man who is anxious about a new job develops a headache the morning of the first day of work |
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Believing people or events are either all bad or all good because of intolerance or ambiguity
A woman who believed her physician was godlike begins to think that he is terrible after he is late for an appointment |
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Erasing an unacceptable event in the past by adopting acceptable behavior in the present (superstitious behavior)
Women who was robbed when she went out the door on the right side of her office building will now only use the left door of the building |
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