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43-451: [REDACTED] Look up undoing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Undoing may refer to: Undoing (psychology) Undoing (film) The Undoing , a 2020 HBO miniseries The Undoing (album) , by Steffany Gretzinger Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

86-424: A defence mechanism is an unconscious psychological operation that functions to protect a person from anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings related to internal conflicts and outer stressors. According to this theory, healthy people normally use different defence mechanisms throughout life. A defence mechanism can potentially become pathological when its persistent use leads to maladaptive behaviour such that

129-609: A desire for perfection, or a strong need for order to maintain a sense of control and avoid facing uncertainty or undesirable impulses. These defences, such as isolation of affects, intellectualization , and undoing , provide a short-term solution but can result in the development of obsessive-compulsive behaviors and hinder one's capacity to express and adapt to emotions. This level of defences allow individuals to cope with stressors, challenges, and trauma. Mechanisms, such as sublimation , affiliation, self-assertion, suppression, altruism , anticipation, humor, and self-observation play

172-451: A four-level classification of defence mechanisms: Much of this is derived from his observations while overseeing the Grant study that began in 1937 and is on-going. In monitoring a group of men from their freshman year at Harvard until their deaths, the purpose of the study was to see longitudinally what psychological mechanisms proved to have impact over the course of a lifetime. The hierarchy

215-540: A higher honor. To the individuals, the Silver Medal represented how close they were to winning which is worse than being awarded bronze, which signified how close they were to not having a placement at all. This suggests that the counterfactual thinking was a sort of implicit way of control and was not actually deliberately employed as a mechanism. Undoing can be used to 'explain away' habits or behaviors that are not in line with an individual's personality. For example, in

258-450: A kind of magical reparation: 'a tendency to undo harm and put objects to right magically'. Later, however, she would use it in terms of a kind of ego disintegration—'a process of undoing, or what she called "a falling into bits"' —and it was in this latter, rather different sense of the term that later Kleinians would tend to use it: 'an invitation to dissolution and undoing...leaving the mental field open for enactment and horror'. There

301-421: A person's own image and their ego from perceived dangers, conflicts, or fears. These processes involve simplifying the way a person sees themselves and others. Splitting of one's self or other's image and projective identification both work on an unconscious level and help to alter reality, enabling these individuals to uphold a more positive view of their lives or situations. Disavowal defence mechanisms include

344-439: A role in building resilience. They allow individuals to redefine challenges in a beneficial way that maximizes positivity. In doing so, they enhance their psychological well-being and encourage adaptation. There are multiple different perspectives on how the construct of defence relates to the construct of coping . While the two concepts share multiple similarities, there is a distinct difference between them that depends on

387-403: Is a proposal that speaks specifically about the automaticity of this counter factual thinking. This theory, as stipulated by Medvec, Madey and Gilovich (1995) states that Undoing can occur as an automatic response to a situation. Their findings involved Olympic Silver Medalists who were less happy about their achievement than the bronze medalists, even though it is known that Silver medalists have

430-537: Is often a result of ongoing conflicts. There are several mechanisms that people use to cope with distressing thoughts and emotions. These include repression , displacement , dissociation , and reaction formation . These defences may offer brief relief; however, they can inhibit development in oneself and contribute to harmful habits. Obsessional defences refer to mental techniques that individuals utilize to cope with anxiety by exerting control over their thoughts, emotions, or behaviors. People may rely on strict routines,

473-618: Is seen as socially undesirable, in that they are immature, difficult to deal with and seriously out of touch with reality. These are the so-called "immature" defences and overuse almost always leads to serious problems in a person's ability to cope effectively. These defences are often seen in major depression and personality disorders . They include: These mechanisms are considered neurotic , but fairly common in adults. Such defences have short-term advantages in coping, but can often cause long-term problems in relationships, work and in enjoying life when used as one's primary style of coping with

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516-532: The American Psychiatric Association (1994) includes a tentative diagnostic axis for defence mechanisms. This classification is largely based on Vaillant's hierarchical view of defences, but has some modifications. Examples include: denial, fantasy, rationalization, regression, isolation, projection, and displacement. However, additional defense mechanisms are still proposed and investigated by different authors. For instance, in 2023, time distortion

559-465: The DMRS, creating the DMRS self report and DMRS-Q sort. Action defence mechanisms are used unconsciously to help reduce stress. Examples include passive aggression , help-rejecting complaining, and acting out , which channel impulses into appropriate behaviors. These processes offer short-term relief but may prevent lasting improvements in the root causes. Major image-distorting mechanisms are used to guard

602-592: The attack or flee situation, it produces heightened cardiovascular re-activity that redistributes blood flow to relevant skeletal muscles. However, in extreme cases, negative emotions will cause damage to people's health in their cardiovascular re-activity. Undoing is tentatively classified at the "Mental inhibitions (compromise formation) level" in DSM-IV-TR 's proposed Defensive Functioning Scale (under Appendix B, "Criteria Sets and Axes Provided for Further Study.") Defense mechanisms In psychoanalytic theory ,

645-467: The case of a person who is well organised in the workplace, yet always forgets to pay bills on time at home, Freudian psychologists could argue that his tardiness with bills is an undoing of his desire to be orderly, or vice versa. Freud has been criticized regarding examples such as this because his theory is so complicated that most problems can be explained by another part of the theory. For some people undoing can be used to reduce cognitive dissonance ,

688-408: The concept of signal anxiety; she stated that it was "not directly a conflicted instinctual tension but a signal occurring in the ego of an anticipated instinctual tension". The signalling function of anxiety was thus seen as crucial, and biologically adapted to warn the organism of danger or a threat to its equilibrium. The anxiety is felt as an increase in bodily or mental tension, and the signal that

731-488: The concept of undoing in Freud's wake. Anna Freud listed it among the ego mechanisms; Ernest Jones and Ella Freeman Sharpe both wrote articles linking it with 'actions and attitudes aimed at the undoing of imaginative destructions. Strivings for reparation may...be the main motive'. Otto Fenichel devoted a substantial section of his "mechanism of defense" to summarizing past work in his encyclopedic Theory of Neurosis : he

774-584: The effects of negative emotions. Barbara Fredrickson and Robert Levenson have come up with the undoing hypothesis. In essence what the hypothesis states is that people might hold in the effects of their positive emotions to counterbalance the effects of their negative emotions. Overall positive emotions help lower the potentially health-damaging cardiovascular reactivity that lingers following negative emotions. This effect may be especially important for those most at risk for developing coronary heart disease. Negative emotions, including anger and fear, can be seen as

817-404: The event itself'. Freud then went on to use '"undoing" what has been done...[as] good enough grounds for re-introducing the old concept of defence , which can cover all these processes that have the same purpose—namely the protection of the ego against instinctual demands' —one of the major technical advances of his later years. The first psychoanalytic half-century saw several writers exploring

860-416: The evolution of human adaptation to survival in life-threatening situations. For example, anger shows the sign of attack, fear shows the sign of escape. These emotional reactions interconnect with our mind and body. These negative emotions are influenced by the physiological support mechanisms, such as the physical energy, that relies on the body to mobilize at an optimal level for individual action to react. In

903-441: The hands, imitating a laying-out. Happiness, joy, love, excitement are all positive emotions and there is no arguing that these emotions contribute in large to how we act, how we think, and what we do. In contrast there are also negative feelings such as sadness that can lead us to act in certain ways that may not necessarily be good. Studies have been performed that have shown that positive emotions can be used to "correct" or "undo"

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946-401: The highest level of adaptiveness these levels include: high-adaptive, obsessional, neurotic, minor image-distorting, disavowal, major image-distorting, and action. The scale was originally created by J. Christopher Perry for the purpose of being able to provide patients with a "defence diagnosis." Additions have been made by Mariagrazia Di Giuseppe and colleagues to enlarge the application of

989-450: The incorporation of some aspects of an object into oneself; rationalization , the justification of one's behaviour by using apparently logical reasons that are acceptable to the ego , thereby further suppressing awareness of the unconscious motivations; and sublimation , the process of channeling libido into "socially useful" disciplines, such as artistic, cultural, and intellectual pursuits, which indirectly provide gratification for

1032-471: The need to cope with reality. Pathological users of these mechanisms frequently appear irrational or insane to others. These are the "pathological" defences, common in overt psychosis . However, they are normally found in dreams and throughout childhood as well. They include: These mechanisms are often present in adults. These mechanisms lessen distress and anxiety produced by threatening people or by an uncomfortable reality. Excessive use of such defences

1075-418: The opposite, and sublimation or displacement . Sigmund Freud posited that defence mechanisms work by distorting id impulses into acceptable forms, or by unconscious or conscious blockage of these impulses. Anna Freud considered defense mechanisms as intellectual and motor automatisms of various degrees of complexity, that arose in the process of involuntary and voluntary learning. Anna Freud introduced

1118-401: The organism receives in this way allows for the possibility of taking defensive action regarding the perceived danger. Both Freuds studied defence mechanisms, but Anna spent more of her time and research on five main mechanisms: repression, regression, projection, reaction formation, and sublimation. All defence mechanisms are responses to anxiety and how the consciousness and unconscious manage

1161-473: The original drives. Some psychologists follow a system that ranks defence mechanisms into seven levels, ranging from a high-adaptive defence level to a psychotic defence level. Assessments carried out when analyzing patients such as the Defence Mechanism Rating Scale (DMRS) and Vaillant's hierarchy of defense mechanisms have been used and modified for over 40 years to provide numerical data on

1204-416: The pathological sense is directed at the act's very reality, and the aim is to suppress it absolutely, as though time were reversed'. The Freud encyclopedia highlighted how 'Acts of expiation can be seen as forms of undoing ' ; George Eman Vaillant placed undoing among the neurotic defenses in his hierarchy of defense mechanisms . Melanie Klein in her early work had written of undoing in terms of

1247-407: The physical or mental health of the individual is adversely affected. Among the purposes of ego defence mechanisms is to protect the mind/self/ego from anxiety or social sanctions or to provide a refuge from a situation with which one cannot currently cope. Examples of defence mechanisms include: repression , the exclusion of unacceptable desires and ideas from consciousness; identification ,

1290-401: The practice of undoing in his 1909 "Notes upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis". Here he recounted how his patient (the "Rat Man") first removed a stone from the road in case his lady's carriage should overturn upon it, and thereafter 'felt obliged to go back and replace the stone in its original position in the middle of the road'. Freud argued that his 'undoing this deed of love by replacing

1333-420: The purpose of protecting an individual's self-esteem. There are several processes that people may use, such as devaluation and idealization of self-image and others-image , as well as omnipotence . These mechanisms assist in preserving a healthy self-perception during times of psychological instability. These defences are strategies that the mind uses without conscious awareness in order to manage anxiety, which

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1376-442: The rejection or denial of unpleasant ideas, emotions, or events. People sometimes distance themselves from certain parts of their identity, whether they are aware of it or not, in order to avoid feelings of unease or discomfort. Mechanisms such as autistic fantasy, rationalization , denial , and projection , can help shield one's ego from feelings of stress or guilt that arise when facing reality. Level four defence mechanisms serve

1419-465: The state of a person's defensive functioning. In the first definitive book on defence mechanisms, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence (1936), Anna Freud enumerated the ten defence mechanisms that appear in the works of her father, Sigmund Freud : repression , regression , reaction formation , isolation , undoing , projection , introjection , turning against one's own person , reversal into

1462-614: The state of consciousness the process is carried out in. The process of coping involves using logic and ration to stabilize negative emotions and stressors. This differs from defence, which is driven by impulse and urges. Similarities between coping and defense mechanisms have been extensively studied in relation to various mental health conditions, such as depression , anxiety , and personality disorders . Research indicates that these mechanisms often follow specific patterns within different disorders, with some, like avoidant coping, potentially exacerbating future symptoms. This aligns with

1505-437: The stone where...her carriage might come to grief against it...was determined by a motive contrary to that which produced the first part' by hate, not love. It was two decades later in 1926 that he formalised the ego defense as' undoing what has been done ....it is, as it were, negative magic, and endeavours, by means of motor symbolism, to blow away not merely the consequences of some event (or experience or impression) but

1548-1329: The stress of a social situation. Otto F. Kernberg (1967) developed a theory of borderline personality organization of which one consequence may be borderline personality disorder . His theory is based on ego psychological object relations theory . Borderline personality organization develops when the child cannot integrate helpful and harmful mental objects together. Kernberg views the use of primitive defence mechanisms as central to this personality organization. Primitive psychological defences are projection, denial, dissociation or splitting and they are called borderline defence mechanisms. Also, devaluation and projective identification are seen as borderline defences. Robert Plutchik 's (1979) theory views defences as derivatives of basic emotions , which in turn relate to particular diagnostic structures. According to his theory, reaction formation relates to joy (and manic features), denial relates to acceptance (and histrionic features), repression to fear (and passivity), regression to surprise (and borderline traits), compensation to sadness (and depression), projection to disgust (and paranoia), displacement to anger (and hostility) and intellectualization to anticipation (and obsessionality). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM-IV ) published by

1591-475: The title Undoing . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Undoing&oldid=1221299220 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Undoing (psychology) Freud first described

1634-405: The uncomfortable feeling created when an attitude and an action, or two attitudes are in conflict with one another. In criminal profiling the term refers to a pattern of behavior by which an offender tries to undo their crime symbolically, e.g. by painting the face of a person killed by the perpetrator, covering up and decorating the corpse with flowers, personal belongings and jewelry, or folding

1677-484: The vulnerability-stress psychopathology model, which involves two core components: vulnerability (non-adaptive mechanisms and processes) and stress (life events). These factors interact to create a threshold for the development of mental disorders. The types of coping and defense mechanisms used can either contribute to vulnerability or act as protective factors. Coping and defence mechanisms work in tandem to balance out feelings of anxiety or guilt, categorizing them both as

1720-701: The world. They include: These are commonly found among emotionally healthy adults and are considered mature, even though many have their origins in an immature stage of development. They are conscious processes, adapted through the years in order to optimise success in human society and relationships. The use of these defences enhances pleasure and feelings of control. These defences help to integrate conflicting emotions and thoughts, whilst still remaining effective. Those who use these mechanisms are usually considered virtuous . Mature defences include: The defence Mechanism Rating Scale (DMRS) includes thirty processes of defence that are divided into 7 categories. Starting from

1763-408: Was especially interested in how 'the undoing sometimes does not consist in a compulsion to do the opposite of what has been done previously but in a compulsion to repeat the very same act...with the opposite unconscious meaning'. The second half of the twentieth century saw little new theoretical or creative work around the concept. Jean Laplanche and J. B. Pontalis laid stress on how 'Undoing in

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1806-425: Was proposed in a publication as a newly identified ego defense. Different theorists have different categorizations and conceptualizations of defence mechanisms. Large reviews of theories of defence mechanisms are available from Paulhus, Fridhandler and Hayes (1997) and Cramer (1991). The Journal of Personality published a special issue on defence mechanisms (1998). Psychiatrist George Eman Vaillant introduced

1849-406: Was seen to correlate well with the capacity to adapt to life. His most comprehensive summary of the on-going study was published in 1977. The focus of the study is to define mental health rather than disorder. When predominant, the mechanisms on this level are almost always severely pathological . These defences, in conjunction, permit one effectively to rearrange external experiences to eliminate

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