A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, by which one attempts to make up or compensate for real or perceived deficiencies. Also a conscious process in which one strives to compensate for real or perceived defects of physique, performance skills, or psychological attributes. The two types frequently merge.
Usually, a defense mechanism.
Something which makes something else seem less bad or less serious.
An amount of money or something else given to pay for loss or damage.
The act of giving money to pay for loss or damage.
A situation where the body helps to correct a problem in a particular organ by making another organ, or the undamaged parts of the same organ, function at a higher level.
Behaviour that emphasises a particular ability or personality characteristic in order to make the lack of another one seem less bad.
In addition to the common meaning of payment for work done, compensation covers systems to make reparation for damage or injury done. Traditionally, patients who have been injured by the health care system, either by malpractice or otherwise, have sought compensation by riling a claim—which usually results in a lawsuit—against the health care provider. This system is lengthy and costly, and does not always provide a fair result. Thus, alternatives are being proposed.
The act of making up for a functional or structural deficiency. For example, compensation for the loss of a diseased kidney is brought about by an increase in size of the remaining kidney, so restoring the urine-producing capacity.
In medical parlance, a term applied to the counterbalancing of some defect of structure or function by some other special bodily development. The body possesses a remarkable power of adapting itself even to serious defects, so that disability due to these passes off after a time. The term is most often applied to the ability possessed by the heart to increase in size, and therefore in power, when the need for greater pumping action arises in consequence of a defective valve or some other abnormality in the circulation. A heart in this condition is, however, more liable to be prejudicially affected by strains and disease processes, and the term ‘failure of compensation’ is applied to the symptoms that result when this power becomes temporarily insufficient.
Making up for a defect, as cardiac circulation competent to meet demands regardless of valvular defect.
Compensation refers to the adaptive response exhibited by an organ in order to compensate for alterations in bodily function or structure. An illustrative instance of compensation is the enlargement of one kidney following the removal of the other.