[Appearance and handling of "primitive" defense mechanisms in group psychotherapy]

Encouraged by the demand aired by Soviet authors for the identification of "ineffectual forms of psychological defence" and their replacement by "more productive" one, we have taken an experiment lasting four weeks that we performed with an open dynamic group as an opportunity to discuss the appearance of defence mechanisms within the group. At the beginning of group-centered non-directive treatment so called primitive defence mechanisms (denial, idealisation, projection, regression) appeared. The absence of a normative structure in dynamic group-centered non-directive psychotherapy reactivates "primitive" anxieties and the corresponding defence mechanisms. The method of dealing with these defence mechanisms is finally described and explained.