Psychic processes and defenses

systematic research on psychoanalytic concepts and on clinical practice using the David Liberman algorithm (DLA)

Abstract

Based on Freudian concepts, the author developed a research method (David Liberman algorithm, DLA) which contributes to the conventional methods of analysis of defenses and also provides results that allow improving the metapsychological apparatus, as well as the understanding of clinical phenomena. With regard to traditional research tools, the method adds a further refinement both to the category system of defenses and to the organization of results regarding the use of research tools. With respect to the category system, DLA offers: 1) ordering of the defensive repertoire, 2) differentiation between two different ways of rejecting reality, 3) a proposition about the central mechanism pertaining to psychosomatic disorders and addictions, 4) differentiation between the state of defenses. As to the organization of results, the method offers the possibility of systematizing the set into a coherent system, which encompasses different psychic processes and the relation between them and the defenses. DLA underscores the mediating value of the concept of psychic processes, which allows linking clinical studies on defenses to methodological reflection about egoic structures. A DLA-based study highlights the wealth of combinations of defenses and also the differences and similarities between reports of extratransferential interpretations and the scenes developed during the session, especially regarding the state of pathogenic defenses. In addition to analyzing the interchange between patient and therapist, DLA introduces the perspective of intersubjectivity, allowing for the distinction between spontaneous relations in the session and the situations of entanglement into clinical traps, when the therapist inadvertently takes on the role of a character in a patient’s traumatic scene.