13: Minimization

Minimization is an attempt to reduce uncomfortable feelings by devaluing them or considering them to be unimportant. A person who minimizes is aware of their emotions and their causes, and does not deny their existence, but merely denies their magnitude.

Again, there is a difference between suppressing emotions for the sake of making a positive impression on others (pretending not to be hurt by an insult to deny the aggressor the satisfaction) and minimizing emotions for the sake of denying their existence to oneself.

Exaggeration can also be a form of minimization - though it is more in the nature of making something seem small by making other things seem larger than they are. An individual may exaggerate one aspect of a situation as a means to ignoring another.