What is "defensiveness"

Usage examples of "defensiveness".

And" —she cleared the defensiveness from her voice, before finishing evenly— "it tracks with his profile to lead law enforcement to clean up after him.

In a year and a half of dating, they had never quite gotten to the decision to live together, but between Kelly's brittle emotional defensiveness and her bold sexual openness, that relationship came to take up as much space and energy as his friends' live-in relationships seemed to.

Near the end of the dinner we began talking about another issue that was indirectly related to schoolwork, and the emotional energy was such that it drove us into the sensitive subject and caused bad feelings and further defensiveness on everyone’s part.

New Kiev asked, and despite her obvious intention to avoid confrontations with the First Lord, her tone bristled with automatic defensiveness of her cherished programs for "building the peace.

You can state clearly and firmly how you feel or what you think, but there will be no aggressiveness or defensiveness about it.

If there is jealousy, defensiveness, the urge to argue, the need to be right, an inner child demanding love and attention, or emotional pain of any kind -- whatever it is, know the reality of that moment and hold the knowing.

If your "enlightenment" is egoic self-delusion, then life will soon give you a challenge that will bring out your unconsciousness in whatever form -- as fear, anger, defensiveness, judgment, depression, and so on.

If the woman misses that opportunity, the man could watch his own mental-emotional reaction to her pain, his own defensiveness, rather than being the reaction.

You can state clearly and firmly how you feel or what you think, but there will be no aggressiveness or defensiveness about it.

If there is jealousy, defensiveness, the urge to argue, the need to be right, an inner child demanding love and attention, or emotional pain of any kind -- whatever it is, know the reality of that moment and hold the knowing.

At that point, Todd' broad shoulders sagged, and he looked as dejecte as a small boy, all the droll defensiveness an outrage gone.

And yet what she was now was what he'd seen in potentia then, hidden beneath the claws-and-teeth defensiveness her short life had left.

Ruth said, her defensiveness waning under op Owen's gentle redirection, because she also could not deny the evidence of the graphs: of that remarkable, infinitesimal variation that had to be an Incident.

What he saw in Roderick's face brought an uncharacteristic defensiveness to his voice.

Dahlia once said, with angry defensiveness, as if someone had feelings and she felt the need to explain to her children, Everybody's trying to get by, selling themselves in different ways!