DEFENSE STYLE IN PERSONALITY-DISORDERS - AN EMPIRICAL-STUDY

Do patients with DSM-III-R axis II diagnoses use defenses thought to b e specific to personality disorders, such as omnipotence, devaluation, splitting, and projective identification? Thirty-one psychiatric outp atients with personality disorders, 42 neurotic outpatients, and 353 c ommunity controls completed the 88-item Defense Style Questionnaire. F actor analysis yielded four factors (defense styles). One of them cons isted of omnipotence, devaluation, splitting, denial, isolation, and p rojective identification, defenses considered as typically ''borderlin e'' (Cronbach's alpha = .72). The personality disorder group scored si gnificantly higher on the borderline defense style than did the other two groups. The other defense styles (mature, immature, and neurotic) did not differentiate between the patient groups, but the mature and i mmature styles did distinguish between patients and healthy controls.