Disqualifying the Positive
Disqualifying the positive is the rejection of positive experiences by insisting, on some pretext, that they 'don't count.' This allows a person to preserve an existing negative belief about themselves even when their own everyday experience keeps contradicting it, but at the cost of feeling perpetually unrewarded by things that would otherwise be genuinely pleasing.
Illustration
When a colleague compliments her work on a difficult project, a woman immediately assumes it was only said to be polite or to secure a favour later, rather than allowing herself to take the compliment at face value, and the praise leaves her feeling nothing at all.
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Appendix II, 'Defences and Distortions'.