Types of percept-genetic defenses in self-defeating personality disorder.

The Defense Mechanism Test was administered to 20 subjects with a psychometric diagnosis of self-defeating personality disorder and to 40 controls with evidence of other personality disturbances. The groups did not differ on sex distribution, age, or education. The following two types of repression were significantly more characteristic of the self-defeating group, (1) the hero is seen as an inanimate or rigid being and (2) the hero is disguised or masked. Codings of introaggression and other major defensive variables did not discriminate between groups.