Defense Mechanisms, Unusual Coping Strategies & Interpersonal Patterns

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Defense Mechanisms, Unusual Coping Strategies
Interpersonal Patterns
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Unusual Coping Strategies
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Stockholm Syndrome

• The Stockholm syndrome is a psychological state
  in which the victims of a kidnapping, or persons
  detained against their free will ? prisoners ?
  develop a relationship with their captor(s). This
  solidarity can sometimes become a real
  complicity, with prisoners actually helping the
  captors to achieve their goals or to escape
  police.??
• The expression originates from a bank robbery
  that took place here on August 23rd 1973, when
  four bank clerks where held hostage in the vault
  for five and a half days.

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Jonestown

• http//youtube.com/watch?vIY3cx3U0gYE
• 1970s cult lead by Jim Jones
• Stockholm syndrome?
• A case of wanting to belong?

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Stanford Prison Experiment

• http//youtube.com/watch?vc4PrmqvYO94
• People react severely even when the situation is
  pretend
• Why did this experiment go so wrong?

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Defense Mechanisms

• When anxiety occurs, the mind first responds by
  an increase in problem-solving thinking, seeking
  rational ways of escaping the situation. If this
  is not fruitful, a range of defense mechanisms
  may be triggered.
• All Defense Mechanisms share two common
  properties
• 1-They often appear unconsciously
• 2-They tend to distort, transform, or otherwise
  falsify reality. In distorting reality, there is
  a change in perception which allows for a
  lessening of anxiety, with a corresponding
  reduction in felt tension.

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Denial

• arguing against an anxiety provoking stimuli by
  stating it doesn't exist
• For example denying that your physician's
  diagnosis of cancer is correct and seeking a
  second opinion

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Displacement

• taking out impulses on a less threatening target
• For example slamming a door instead of hitting a
  person, yelling at your spouse after an argument
  with your boss

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Intellectualization

• avoiding unacceptable emotions by focusing on the
  intellectual aspects
• For example focusing on the details of a funeral
  as opposed to the sadness and grief

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Projection

• placing unacceptable impulses in yourself onto
  someone else
• when losing an argument, you state "You're just
  Stupid" homophobia

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Rationalization

• supplying a logical or rational reason as opposed
  to the real reason
• For example stating that you were fired because
  you didn't kiss up the the boss, when the real
  reason was your poor performance

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Reaction Formation

• taking the opposite belief because the true
  belief causes anxiety
• having a bias against a particular race or
  culture and then embracing that race or culture
  to the extreme

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Repression

• pulling into the unconscious
• forgetting sexual abuse from your childhood due
  to the trauma and anxiety

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Other Defense Mechanisms

• Regression
• Sublimation
• Supression

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Common thought distortions in abusive
relationships

• Denial that it is an abusive relationship
• Not seeing the pattern, justifying each incident
  as isolated
• Anger management?

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