isolation of affect

n. A defense mechanism whereby the individual wards off unwanted emotion by separating it from his or her conscious experience. For example, a person may consistently compartmentalize his or her emotional experiences away from other mental processes as a way of not being overwhelmed by them. From a psychoanalytic perspective, the emotion has not been eliminated but instead has only moved out of conscious awareness, likely to reemerge in other areas (e.g., in behavior, dreams, slips of the tongue). As with most defense mechanisms, this process is unconscious; the individual has no idea that the emotion is being distanced from his or her experience. Of course, in the long term the use of isolation of affect is detrimental to interpersonal relations because (among other things) it keeps the individual at a distance from his or her real emotional experiences, probably distancing him or her from others.

- DGa