Table 2 The defensive styles according to Bond [61].
Style 1: Reflects a regressive situation and highlights behavioural disorders. The patient appears incapable of integrating his own impulses in a constructive and responsible action. It includes defenses that are commonly considered immature |
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Autistic withdrawal, acting-out, inhibition, passive aggression, projection |
Style 2: Identifies problems in relationships and includes defenses that "distort the image" more than defenses concerning action. Such a defensive structure disturbs the object relations while it does not interfere with social and work fulfilment; in literature these are defenses associated with borderline and narcissistic disorders |
Splitting, primitive idealization, omnipotent devaluation |
Style 3: Includes "self-sacrificing" defenses (for instance the compulsion to "appear good"); it poses problems more on the level of creative capabilities rather than relational ones, allowing in this last field stable object relations even if not necessarily "healthy" ones (i.e. masochistic relations) |
Reactive formation, pseudo-altruism |
Style 4: It is also defined as "adaptive"; including defenses associated with a good adjustment and a good integration |
Sense of humour, repression, sublimation |