Ego mechanisms of defense

"Not since Anna Freud's 1937 book, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense, has anyone explored defense mechanisms as fully as Dr. George E. Vaillant has in this volume. "No mental status or clinical formulation is complete," writes Vaillant, "without an effort to identify a patient's dominant defense mechanisms."" "Psychodynamic clinicians have long recognized the importance of exploring defense mechanisms in assessing normal and pathological personality functioning. In recent years the availability of prospective longitudinal studies of adult development and videotapes of clinical interactions, as well as cognitive psychology's role in linking neuroscience with psychoanalysis, has made possible the empirical study of defense mechanisms." "This volume, with contributions by interdisciplinary researchers, lays the groundwork for future research by summarizing empirical studies to date, proposing a universal language of defense mechanisms, and demonstrating how various assessment methods can be used in diagnosis, case formulation, and treatment. Dr. Vaillant and colleagues leave no stone unturned in their evaluation of such assessment methods as videotaped interviewing, written transc