Differences in the Defense Mechanism Technique modified (DMTm) between Depressive and Somatoform Disorder Patients

Abstract

Differences in the Defense Mechanism Technique modified (DMTm), a percept-genetic tachistoscopic technique, between 56 patients with a main diagnosis of mild, moderate or severe unipolar depression and 42 with a main diagnosis of somatoform disorder were studied. As expected, the affect defenses of inhibition, introaggression and barrier isolation—all through their specified motive related to the depressive position of the affect positions model of the Andersson developmental and psychodynamic model of the mind—appeared more often with the depressive than the somatoform patients. Repression scored at the place of the threatening person in the DMTm pictures (Pp-repression) was more often found with the depressive patients, projected introaggression and no Pp-repression but repression scored at the place of the non-threatening person (H-repression) with the somatoform. In total less than four scorings of affect anxiety and affect defense, seen to indicate alexithymia, characterized the somatoform patients and those with mild depression. Denial through reversal II 3 and denial through reversal IV were common with the somatoform patients and those with severe depression. Denial was uncommon with mild depression. Denial, denial through reversal II 3 and denial through reversal IV increased the more severe the depression. The findings were interpreted according to the Andersson model.