MELANCHOLIA - A DEFENSE-MECHANISM TEST STUDY

The defensive organization of Melancholia was explored with a tachisto scopic percept-genetic technique, the Defense Mechanism Test. A sample of 20 women inpatients with a DSM-III-R diagnosis of Major Depressive Episode or Major Depression, Melancholic Type was contrasted with a m atched group of depressed outpatients and a matched group of nonclinic al subjects. Signs of introaggression on the hero, statue-repression, and stereotype significantly characterized melancholic patients. The l atter were discriminated from depressed outpatients as showing more si gns of stereotypy and of discontinuity. Mask-disguise defenses were ty pically endorsed by Bipolar melancholic patients and significantly dif ferentiated them from Unipolar melancholic patients. One type of stere otype (regarding wrong age attributes of the central figure) successfu lly predicted a poor response to antidepressive therapy. Relevant modi fications of the current Defense Mechanism Test coding criteria for st ereotypy are proposed.