Negative affectivity refers to a persistent tendency to experience distressing emotions such as anxiety, sadness, anger, and irritability. In psychodynamic psychotherapy, these emotional patterns are understood as meaningful expressions of a patient’s inner world, which are influenced by past experiences and unconscious processes.

The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) is a structured assessment tool used to identify and understand patterns of pathological personality traits including negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, and psychoticism. Beyond traditional diagnostic categories, is can offer a deeper view of personality and a larger understanding of emotional and interpersonal functioning.

The Attachment Styles Questionnaire is a psychological self-report measure used to assess patterns of attachment in adult relationships. Within a psychodynamic framework, it can offer insight into how early relational experiences influence expectations of closeness, trust, openness, and emotional connection with others.

Emotional numbness is a psychological experience where a person feels disconnected from their emotions or unable to experience feelings with their usual intensity. From a psychodynamic perspective, this experience usually seen as a defence where the mind unconsciously restricts access to difficult feelings, such as grief, fear, anxiety, or anger, in order to maintain stability and protect itself from emotional overwhelm.

Adolescence is a significant time of emotional and relational change, which can lead to heightened sensitivity, changing family dynamics, growing independence, and changing parental relationships. Adolescent psychodynamic psychotherapy can offer a thoughtful and depth-oriented approach to understanding the underlying emotional changes that can influence behaviour during this stage of development.

Conversion is a psychological defence where emotional conflict is expressed through physical symptoms, and allows for distress to be managed outside of conscious awareness. Historically associated with what was once termed hysteria, conversion is now understood in psychodynamic psychotherapy as an important mind–body process that can show both protection from overwhelm and the need for emotional integration.

Undoing is a psychological defence mechanism where individuals attempt to neutralize or reverse distressing thoughts, impulses, feelings, or emotions through compensatory actions or mental rituals. From a psychodynamic perspective, undoing demonstrates an effort to manage guilt and anxiety while avoiding direct emotional integration of underlying conflict.

Upward and downward social comparisons refer to the usually unconscious ways that individuals evaluate themselves in relation to others, which can influence self-esteem, affect regulation, identity, and overall emotions. From a psychodynamic perspective, these comparisons can function adaptively or defensively, and can influence how people manage envy, shame, aspiration, and vulnerability within their inner worlds.

Isolation of affect is a psychological defence mechanism where emotions are separated from thoughts, memories, flashbacks, or experiences as a way of managing distress. This strategy, while kt can help individuals maintain control and clarity during overwhelming situations in the short term, may also lead to less emotional awareness, depth, connection, and attachments over time.

Somatization is a psychodynamic defence where emotional distress and unconscious conflict are expressed through physical symptoms when affect cannot be safely recognized or articulated, which is a process understood by Vaillant as a way of discharging psychological tension through the body. While this defence is protective in the short term, this pattern can become entrenched over time, and psychodynamic psychotherapy looks to support the careful shift from somatic expression toward emotional awareness.

Introjection is an unconscious psychodynamic process where individuals take on the emotions, beliefs, behaviours and expectations of others close to them and experience them as their own, which influence their coping strategies. Depending on how it functions, introjection can support growth or contribute to self-criticism, demonstrating what Vaillant described as a defence that ranges from adaptive to less mature forms.

Splitting, which is closely tied to black-and-white thinking, is a primitive defence where a person interprets themselves, others, situations, and experiences in rigid extremes, usually as a way to manage overwhelming emotions. In psychodynamic psychotherapy, understanding this pattern allows patients to move toward better emotional integration and relational stability.

Hypochondriasis, more commonly referred to as illness anxiety disorder, is the persistent fear of having a serious medical condition despite medical reassurance. In psychodynamic psychotherapy, it can be understood not only as health anxiety, but as a deeper expression of underlying emotional conflicts and relational history.

Anticipation is a mature psychological defence mechanism that allows individuals to manage anxiety by consciously preparing for future challenges or losses. This defence was recognized by George Vaillant as a sign of emotional maturity, and shows a balance between awareness and action, allowing people to shift distress into preparation and long-term resilience.

Altruism as a defence mechanism involves shifting distress into acts of care for others, and allows for painful emotions to be expressed in a socially constructive way. As Vaillant said, this mature defence supports functioning that is adaptive, and offers both relief internally and a genuine contribution while also allowing for the exploration of its deeper emotional roots in therapy.

Suppression is a mature defence mechanism that involves consciously choosing to set aside uncomfortable or distressing thoughts or emotions to effectively manage demands. As described by George Vaillant, suppression reflects psychological strength and self-regulation, which is an individual’s ability to acknowledge discomfort without avoidance, and allows for emotional processing when the time and context are right.

Sublimation is a mature defence mechanism where instinctual or socially unacceptable impulses are then transitioned into creative and purposeful actions, which reflects psychological growth and resilience, as described by Vaillant. It illustrates how inner conflict can be redirected into expressions that are meaningful and healthy, which can then allow patients to turn emotional tension into personal development.

Humour, identified by Vaillant as one of the mature psychological defences, allows patients to face painful or anxiety-provoking realities with self-awareness by shifting distress into something tolerable. In psychodynamic psychotherapy, it shows the capacity to acknowledge truth without distortion, and offers both protection and insight into the deeper layers of emotions.

Repression is a defence mechanism that unconsciously keeps painful thoughts, feelings, emotions, and memories out of awareness, and forms patients’ behaviour and relationships in hidden ways. Although it can temporarily protect against feeling overwhelmed, persistent reliance on this defence can lead to unresolved conflicts that psychodynamic therapy looks to bring into conscious awareness and understanding.

Displacement is described by Vaillant as a neurotic defence mechanism where patients redirect emotions from a threatening or inaccessible source onto a safer target. Psychodynamic psychotherapy can help patients recognize these patterns and turn them into healthier and more direct ways of managing conflict.