Defense style in personality disorders. An empirical study

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Psychoanalysis

Background:

• Defense mechanisms are psychological strategies used to cope with reality and maintain self-image.
• Certain defense mechanisms, such as omnipotence, devaluation, splitting, and projective identification, are considered characteristic of personality disorders.
• The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition-Revised (DSM-III-R) classifies personality disorders under Axis II.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether patients with DSM-III-R Axis II diagnoses exhibit specific defense mechanisms associated with personality disorders.
• To identify and analyze distinct defense styles in different patient populations and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 31 psychiatric outpatients with personality disorders, 42 neurotic outpatients, and 353 community controls.
• Participants completed the 88-item Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ).
• Factor analysis was employed to identify distinct defense styles within the DSQ responses.

Main Results:

• Factor analysis identified four defense styles, one of which was characterized as a "borderline" defense style (including omnipotence, devaluation, splitting, denial, isolation, and projective identification).
• The personality disorder group demonstrated significantly higher scores on the borderline defense style compared to neurotic outpatients and community controls.
• While other defense styles (mature, immature, neurotic) did not differentiate between patient groups, mature and immature styles distinguished patients from healthy controls.

Conclusions:

• Patients diagnosed with personality disorders (Axis II) significantly utilize defense mechanisms characteristic of the identified "borderline" defense style.
• The findings support the notion that specific defense mechanisms are associated with personality disorders.
• Defense style analysis can differentiate between clinical populations and healthy individuals, and potentially between different clinical groups.