{"quotes":[{"text":"The ego with its protective defense mechanisms is the biggest impediment to attaining spiritual growth.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["defense-mechanism","defensiveness","ego","enlightenment","enlightenment-and-attitude","enlightenment-principles","enlightenment","personal-development","personal-growth"],"id":2152,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"The challenge of abating one with a genuine ego problem is to not try to put him down. Any and all antagonization, in his mind, is merely compensated for by his own descriptions: his feelings of persecution by the envious and his ideals of worth. Arguably, the genuine ego is more of a circumstantial defense mechanism rather than a steady arrogance in need of starvation.","author":"Criss Jami","tags":["arrogance","challenge","defense-mechanism","ego","envy","narcissist","persecution","psychology","starvation","worth"],"id":163458,"author_id":"Criss+Jami"},{"text":"Attending a funeral would leave the average person insane, if they truly believed that sooner or later they are also going to die.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["aphorism","aphorisms","aphorist","aphorists","attend","believe","crazy","dead","death","defense-mechanism","defense-mechanisms","denial","denial-of-death","die","funeral","funerals","funny","gone-too-soon","hereafter","hilarious","humor","humorous","humour","immortal","immortality","insane","insanity","joke","jokes","life","life-after-death","life-and-death","mortal","mortality","mourn","quotations","quotes","rest-in-peace","rip","sane","sanity","satire","sincere","sincerity","the-hereafter"],"id":292085,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"In the space of solitude, a writer attempts to remember how they became whom they are but nobody’s memory is up to this demanding task. No matter how much a person harrows the fertile lanes of memory, some memories are lost by the passage of time, psychological defense mechanisms screen other memories from detection, the ephemeral character of other memories are invariably to elusive to arrest with reciprocal language.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["defense-mechanism","lanuage","memoir","memoir-writing","memories","memory","recollection","writing","writing-process"],"id":310340,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"Envy is a sign of insecurity, yes; but so is longing to be envied.","author":"Criss Jami","tags":["criticism","defense","defense-mechanism","envy","envy-and-attitude","hate","haters","hating","hypocrisy","insecurity","longings","psychology","security","signs","spite"],"id":337591,"author_id":"Criss+Jami"},{"text":"I was persisting in reading my present environment in the light of my old one.","author":"Richard Wright","tags":["acclimation","adaptation","culture","defense","defense-mechanism","enculturation","evolved-consciousness","evolving","flinch"],"id":356561,"author_id":"Richard+Wright"},{"text":"I'm sorry. I use my rapier wit to hide my inner pain.","author":"Cassandra Clare","tags":["defense-mechanism","humor","sarcasm"],"id":411180,"author_id":"Cassandra+Clare"},{"text":"We think that boxes take everything that’s bad and they lock all that nasty stuff out, when in reality they take everything that we are and they lock all of those great things in.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["abilities","boundaries","boxes","defense-mechanism","fear","fearful","frightened","mediocrity","potential","protection","reluctance","safety","tentative","walls"],"id":420369,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"Professing not to care is a primordial defense mechanism. Whenever a person finds oneself mired in failure and despondency, rebelling is a viable option to preserve false personal pride.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["defense-mechanism","defensiveness","depression","depression","despondency","failure","failure","pride","vanity"],"id":459268,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"Denial of one's need for others is the most common type of defense against bonding. If people come from a situation, whether growing up or later in life, where good, safe relationships were not available to them, they learn to deny that they even want them. Why want what you can't have? They slowly get rid of their awareness of the need.","author":"Henry Cloud","tags":["bonding","defense-mechanism","denial","emotional-needs","healthy-relationships","l","needs","self-awareness"],"id":460013,"author_id":"Henry+Cloud"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":11,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}