Immature

Acting out: Expressing unacceptable feelings through actions
Denial: Behaving as if an aspect of reality does not exist
Displacement: Transferring feelings to less threatening object/person
Intellectualization: Focusing on nonemotional aspects to avoid distressing feelings
Passive aggression: Avoiding conflict by expressing hostility covertly
Projection: Attributing one’s own feelings to others
Rationalization: Justifying behavior to avoid difficult truths
- Common in OCD
Reaction formation: Transforming unacceptable feelings/impulses into the opposite
Regression: Reverting to earlier developmental stage
- See Rett syndrome
Splitting: Experiencing a person/situation as either all positive or all negative

	Be bad to others
Feeling is from someone else	Displacement
Feeling is from self	Projection
	Be good to others
Not beneficial to society	Reaction formation
Beneficial to society	Sublimation
	Escaping from an idea
Not intentionally (subconsciously)	Repression
Intentionally	Suppression

Mnemonic

Immature mechanisms are all before “S”, because they are not strong enough…

Mature