The Defenses in Psychoanalysis: Theoretical Concepts to Empirical Research

The Defenses in Psychoanalysis explores the nature and assessment of defense mechanisms through an integration of psychoanalytic theory and empirical research in contemporary psychoanalysis.

Presented in two parts, the first section offers a comprehensive overview of major psychoanalytic contributions to the understanding of defense, from Freud’s foundational ideas to contemporary developments. This section serves as a conceptual foundation for the empirical work that follows and provides a coherent synthesis of key perspectives, aimed especially at readers less familiar with psychoanalytic thinking. The second section presents the development and validation of the Comprehensive Rorschach Defense System (CRDS), a tool developed in collaboration with Carl B. Gacono for coding defense mechanisms in Rorschach protocols. The structure and coding criteria of the CRDS are explained and illustrated with numerous examples, followed by the presentation of data from a validation study supporting its reliability and clinical significance. The book concludes with a clinical chapter demonstrating how the CRDS can be used to deepen psychoanalytic understanding of defensive functioning.