(psychiatry) a defense mechanism that conceals your undesirable shortcomings by exaggerating desirable behaviors

(psychiatry) a defense mechanism represses emotional conflicts which are then converted into physical symptoms that have no organic basis

(psychiatry) a defense mechanism that denies painful thoughts

(psychiatry) a defense mechanism that transfers affect or reaction from the original object to some more acceptable one

(psychiatry) a defense mechanism that splits something you are ambivalent about into two representations--one good and one bad

(psychiatry) a defense mechanism that uses reasoning to block out emotional stress and conflict

(psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which memory of an unacceptable act or impulse is separated from the emotion originally associated with it

(psychiatry) a defense mechanism by which your own traits and emotions are attributed to someone else

(psychiatry) a defense mechanism by which your true motivation is concealed by explaining your actions and feelings in a way that is not threatening

(psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously develops attitudes and behavior that are the opposite of unacceptable repressed desires and impulses and serve to conceal them

(psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which you flee from reality by assuming a more infantile state

(psychiatry) the classical defense mechanism that protects you from impulses or ideas that would cause anxiety by preventing them from becoming conscious

(psychoanalysis) the process whereby emotions are passed on or displaced from one person to another; during psychoanalysis the displacement of feelings toward others (usually the parents) is onto the analyst

(psychiatry) an attempt to overcome a real or imagined defect or unwanted trait by overly exaggerating its opposite