The defensive organization of the personality in affective disorders and investigation of its dynamic during a psychoanalytic interview

Abstract

The article describes a psychoanalytically-informed study of the defense organization of the personality of patients with affective disorders during a psychoanalytic interview. The authors propose their definition of the defensive organization and a typology of mental dispositions which helps to conduct a clinical and empirical investigation of the dynamic of the defensive organization of patients with psychotic and affective disorders. Using the method of configuration analysis and the proposed typology of mental dispositions the authors offer a detailed analysis of the dynamic of the defensive organization of a patient with bipolar affective disorder in the course of two psychodynamic interviews.

Keywords

• defensive organization of the personality
• defense mechanisms
• affective disorders
• psychoses
• psychoanalytic interview
• configuration analysis