DEFENSIVE CHARACTERISTICS IN INDIVIDUALS WITH AMALGAM ILLNESS AS MEASURED BY THE PERCEPT-GENETIC METHOD DEFENSE-MECHANISM TEST

Twenty patients complaining of symptoms deriving from their amalgam fi llings and a non-patient group were assessed by means of the perceptua l projective Defense Mechanism Test (DMT). The test protocols were sco red for 130 DMT variables and analyzed by means of the multivariate st atistical method Partial Least Squares discriminant analysis. The obje ctive was to try to distinguish the group with amalgam illness from th e non-patient group by means of the DMT. The results showed that. it w as possible to distinguish the two groups significantly from each othe r. The most characteristic traits of the patient group were a general lateness in perception and few emotional responses compared with the n on-patient group and, especially, an inability to perceive the aggress ive component in the stimulus picture. The DMT seems to be a powerful method in the effort to understand the mechanisms underlying the probl ems of amalgam illness.