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Old 03-17-2006, 05:52 PM
Miklos Miklos is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,244
Quote:
Originally Posted by YuQX
Suppression!

Suppression is the COUSCIOUS removing of a stressful event from awareness; Denial is the automatic DISTORTION of reality to exclude material that evokes conflict.-----Kaplan Notes

Because I didn't see any distortion from that girl, she just avoid the stressful event consciously. So suppression is the right answer for her defense mechanism.
I looked it up in Kaplan and Saddock's Synopsis of Psychiatry, 9th Edition.

Emphasis mine.

Page 207:

Under Narcisstic defenses;

Denial: Avoiding the awareness of some painful aspect of reality by negating sensory data. Although repression defends against affects and drive derivatives, denial abolishes external reality. Denial may be used in both normal and pathological status.

Compare the above to

Page 208:

Under Mature defenses;

Suppression: Consciously or semiconsciously postponing attention to a conscious impulse or conflict. Issues may be deliberately cut off, but they are not avoided. Discomfort is acknowledged but minimized.

Quote:
Amanda is 18 year old. Her friend just died from crack overdose. Everytime someone talked about her friend she would change the subject. She would not want to even look at her friend's picture.
Therefore clearly denial, even though the question stem is very poor.
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