Review Question - QID 105743

This patient exhibits characteristics of displacement, a neurotic defense mechanism.

Defense mechanisms are unconscious processes by the ego to protect oneself and relieve anxiety by keeping conflicts out of awareness. Defenses are often classified into mature, neurotic, and immature defenses. Mature defenses are healthy and adaptive and seen in normal adults. Neurotic defenses are often encountered in obsessive-compulsive patients, hysterical patients, and patients under stress. Immature defenses are primarily seen in children and are the most primitive in nature. Neurotic defenses include displacement, intellectualization, isolation of affect, rationalization, reaction formation, and repression. Displacement involves shifting emotions from an undesirable situation to one that is personally tolerable as is seen in this case, where the golfer directs his anger at his wife towards his caddy.

Troisi describes displacement activities as a behavioral measure of stress. A promising approach to the study of the behavioral correlates of stress is to analyze those behavioral patterns that ethologists have named displacement activities and that, in primates, consist mostly of self-directed behaviors. In both nonhuman primates and human subjects, displacement behavior appears in situations characterized by social tension and is likely to reflect increased autonomic arousal. Pharmacological studies of nonhuman primates have shown that the frequency of displacement behavior is increased by anxiogenic compounds and decreased by anxiolytic drugs.

Chabrol discusses defense mechanisms, which are mental operations that are involuntary, unconscious, and contribute to reduce internal and external stresses. Defenses can either be a part of normal personality organization or be contributors to personality pathology.

Incorrect Answers:
Answer 1: Sublimation is the satisfaction of an objectionable impulse in an acceptable manner, channeling these impulses rather than preventing them. It is a mature defense.
Answer 3: Isolation of affect is the unconscious limiting of feelings or emotions associated with a stressful life event in order to avoid anxiety. It is also a neurotic defense mechanism but not the best answer choice.
Answer 4: Rationalization is the creation of explanations of an event in order to justify outcomes or behaviors to make them acceptable. It is also a neurotic defense mechanism but not the best answer choice.
Answer 5: Repression is the prevention of a thought or feeling from entering consciousness. It is also a neurotic defense mechanism but not the best answer choice.