Question at position 3 John accidentally tripped his sister when they were little, resulting in his sister falling face-first into a cake. John felt terrible about this for years when he was growing up, but if you ask John about it now, he says that he doesn’t remember it at all. Which defense mechanism is John portraying here?projectionrepressionregressionreaction formation

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Question at position 3 John accidentally tripped his sister when they were little, resulting in his sister falling face-first into a cake. John felt terrible about this for years when he was growing up, but if you ask John about it now, he says that he doesn’t remember it at all. Which defense mechanism is John portraying here?projectionrepressionregressionreaction formation

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Consider the scenario described: a childhood incident where John harmed his sister, followed by lasting guilt in childhood, and now a complete inability to recall the event when asked. This prompts evaluation of each defense mechanism.
Option 1: projection. Projection involves attributing one's own unacceptable thoughts or impulses to someone else. For example, accusing others of being aggressive because one cannot accept their own aggression. In this case, there is no indication that John is attributing his guilt or the incident to someone else; the focus is on his own memory and experience, so projection does not fit.
Option 2: repression. Repression is an unconscious process that blocks from conscious awareness distressing memories or impulses. The key clues are the long-lasting guilt from the incident and, later, the inability to remember the event at all. The memory is inaccessible to conscious recall, which aligns with repression.
Option 3: regression. Regression involves returning to an earlier developmental stage in behavior or coping when faced with stress (e.g., throwing a temper tantrum like a child). The scenario does not describe a shift to childish behavior, but rather a failure to recall the memory, making regression inappropriate here.
Option 4: reaction formation. Reaction formation is acting in a way that is opposite to a true impulse (for example, being overly virtuous to cover up guilt). There is no evidence of John displaying opposite behaviors to his guilt; instead, the emphasis is on suppression of memory, so this option does not fit.
Overall, the pattern of an unconscious amnesia for a distressing memory, paired with lingering emotional impact, most closely matches repression, while the other mechanisms fail to account for the described features.

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