Autorentext

Anna Maria Rosso, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, and Associate Professor of Psychodynamic Psychology at eCampus University, Italy. A full member of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and the IPA, she is in private practice and serves as co-delegate for Italy to the Comprehensive System International Rorschach Association (CSIRA).

Klappentext

The Defenses in Psychoanalysis explores the nature and assessment of defense mechanisms through an integration of psychoanalytic theory and empirical research in contemporary psychoanalysis.

Presented in two parts, the first section offers a comprehensive overview of major psychoanalytic contributions to the understanding of defense, from Freud's foundational ideas to contemporary developments. This section serves as a conceptual foundation for the empirical work that follows and provides a coherent synthesis of key perspectives, aimed especially at readers less familiar with psychoanalytic thinking. The second section presents the development and validation of the Comprehensive Rorschach Defense System (CRDS), a tool developed in collaboration with Carl B. Gacono for coding defense mechanisms in Rorschach protocols. The structure and coding criteria of the CRDS are explained and illustrated with numerous examples, followed by the presentation of data from a validation study supporting its reliability and clinical significance. The book concludes with a clinical chapter demonstrating how the CRDS can be used to deepen psychoanalytic understanding of defensive functioning.

The Defenses in Psychoanalysis will be of interest to psychoanalysts in practice and in training and to psychologists with psychodynamic training.

Inhalt

List of contributors

Acknowledgements

Series editor's foreword

Silvia Fletchner

Introduction

Anna Maria Rosso

Part I

A journey through the changing landscape of defenses in psychoanalysis

Chapter 1

A journey through Freud's conceptualization of defense mechanisms

Anna Maria Rosso

Chapter 2

Forty years on: Anna Freud's re-examination of defense mechanisms in dialogue with Joseph Sandler

Anna Maria Rosso

Chapter 3

The Klein-Bion paradigm shift

Anna Maria Rosso

Chapter 4

The British Independents' twist

Anna Maria Rosso

Chapter 5

Insight into defenses from the North American psychoanalysis

Anna Maria Rosso

Chapter 6

Does the concept of defense still hold water in psychoanalysis? Notes from the current psychoanalytic literature

Anna Maria Rosso

Part II

The Heuristic utility of defense mechanisms in empirical research in psychoanalysis

Chapter 7

Exploring the defenses in outcome research in psychoanalysis

Anna Maria Rosso

Chapter 8

Historical developments of assessing defenses on the Rorschach

Jason M. Smith and Carl B. Gacono

Chapter 9

The Comprehensive Rorschach Defense System. A new coding system

Carl B. Gacono and Anna Maria Rosso

Chapter 10

The validation of the Comprehensive Rorschach Defense System

Anna Maria Rosso and Andrea Camoirano

Chapter 11

Exploring psychic functioning through the Comprehensive Rorschach Defense System: A case study

Anna Maria Rosso

References