Operational diagnostic approaches in the assessment of defense mechanisms

A model for the operationalization of empirical research of defense mechanisms is presented. Measures for operationalized defense diagnoses are discussed against the background of a cognitive model of different coding of information channels (linguistic and perceptual coding). Studies for the operationalized diagnoses in the clinical assessment of defense mechanism are discussed for the identification of the defense mechanism, reliability of rating procedures, and the prognostic aspects in psychotherapy and psychosomatics. The regulation of defense on different levels of a hierarchy of complex systems of variables is demonstrated with paradigmatic results.