Melancholia: A Defense Mechanism Test Study

Abstract

The defensive organization of Melancholia was explored with a tachistoscopic percept-genetic technique, the Defense Mechanism Test. A sample of 20 women inpatients with a DSM-III—R diagnosis of Major Depressive Episode or Major Depression, Melancholic Type was contrasted with a matched group of depressed outpatients and a matched group of nonclinical subjects. Signs of introaggression on the hero, statue-repression, and stereotypy significantly characterized melancholic patients. The latter were discriminated from depressed outpatients as showing more signs of stereotypy and of discontinuity. Mask-disguise defenses were typically endorsed by Bipolar melancholic patients and significantly differentiated them from Unipolar melancholic patients. One type of stereotypy (regarding wrong age attributes of the central figure) successfully predicted a poor response to antidepressive therapy. Relevant modifications of the current Defense Mechanism Test coding criteria for stereotypy are proposed.