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secondary defense symptoms

a set of defensive measures used by obsessive individuals when their primary defenses against repressed memories no longer offer protection. The secondary defenses usually include obsessional thinking, including doubting obsession, and speculations, which may be expressed as phobias, ceremonials, superstitions, or pedantry. [defined by Sigmund Freud]

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Psychology term of the day

January 13th 2025

genetic psychology

genetic psychology

the study of the development of mental functions in children and their transformation across the lifespan. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the term was preferred over the synonymous developmental psychology.