Defense mechanism of Paranoid Schizophrenia - Examples

Here are the following defense mechanisms, the client diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia elicited:


• Denial - failure to acknowledge unbearable condition; failure to admit the reality of a situation or how one enables the problem to continue.

- the patient denies attempts of suicide as well as his inability to maintain an intimate relationship with opposite sex.

• Displacement - ventilation of intense feelings toward person less threatening than the one who aroused those feelings.

- the patient turns his anger towards his mother who he feels less threatening than his father and/or neighbors.

• Rationalization - excusing own behavior to avoid guilt, responsibility, conflict, anxiety, or loss of self respect.

- his inability to maintain an intimate relationship was justified by the client as his decision to be careful in choosing before going into courtship.