Omm: Defense Mechanisms

 

1. Repression: Unconsciously pushing distressing thoughts, feelings, or memories out of conscious awareness.
Denial: Refusing to accept or acknowledge the reality of a traumatic or anxiety-producing situation.
Projection: Attributing one’s own unacceptable or threatening thoughts, feelings, or motives onto someone else.
Displacement: Redirecting an impulse, emotion, or reaction from a dangerous or unacceptable target to a safe, less threatening one.
Reaction Formation: Behaving in a way that is the exact opposite of one's true, often uncomfortable or unacceptable, feelings.
Rationalization: Creating false but seemingly logical justifications to explain away unacceptable behavior or negative outcomes.
Intellectualization: Focusing on the intellectual, logical, or academic aspects of a distressing situation to avoid experiencing the painful emotions tied to it.
Sublimation: Channeling unacceptable urges, impulses, or frustrations into socially acceptable, productive behaviors or activities.
Regression: Reverting to an earlier, more childlike stage of development or behavior when faced with stress.
Suppression: The conscious, intentional act of pushing distressing thoughts or feelings aside, with the plan to address them later.
Compensation: Overachieving in one area to make up for perceived deficiencies or weaknesses in another area.
Dissociation: Compartmentalizing or disconnecting from reality, one's identity, or one's physical surroundings in order to escape trauma or overwhelming stress.
Identification: Adopting the beliefs, behaviors, or characteristics of another person or group in order to feel more secure or capable.
Avoidance: Intentionally staying away from people, places, or situations that trigger distressing thoughts or emotions.
Conversion: Expressing psychological distress or an unconscious conflict through physical, bodily symptoms with no underlying medical cause.
Acting Out: Expressing an unconscious emotion or impulse directly through behavior rather than reflecting on or talking about the feeling.
Splitting: Viewing people or situations as entirely "all good" or "all bad," lacking the ability to see gray areas or ambivalence in others. 

The Uses of Sorrow by Mary Oliver

(In my sleep I dreamed this poem)

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.

#additionbysubtraction

Each From Different Heights

Stephen Dunn

That time I thought I was in love

and calmly said so

was not much different from the time

I was truly in love

and slept poorly and spoke out loud

to the wall

and discovered the hidden genius

of my hands.

And the times I felt less in love,

less than someone,

were, to be honest, not so different

either.

Each was ridiculous in its own way

and each was tender, yes,

sometimes even the false is tender.

I am astounded

by the various kisses we’re capable of.

Each from different heights

diminished, which is simply the law.

And the big bruise

from the longer fall looked perfectly white

in a few years.

That astounded me most of all.

i take my glasses off

Lucille Clifton 

it is the hard

edge of things

i am avoiding

the separations

so that i can take my glasses off

and then i cannot tell

which are the leaves

and which the angels

like blake

like that man

who lived with the lepers

not noticing what was sin

and what was grace

visioning visions vision

i take my glasses off

so i can see

#poets

 “Most people don’t see you. They see how you make them feel.”

I don’t know if anyone knows how disingenuous you are. 

How you’ve cultivated a facade of sincerity and approachability that hides your cutting and callous nature. 

How scary inappropriate. Invasive. Indecent. Insecure you truly are.

How being born plain will always be an impossible hurdle for your super-sized ego to bear. 

How you exercise your ‘power’ over people by getting away with crossing boundaries and never getting caught doing the diabolical things you do.