Approaches to Measuring Defenses: The Defense Mechanisms Inventory

Abstract

Since its appearance 21 years ago, the Defense Mechanisms Inventory (DMI; Gleser & Ihilevich, 1969; Ihilevich & Gleser, 1986) has been used as a personality measure in more than 40 published investigations. Despite some psychometric problems, its design—more projective than, for example, Haan’s (1965) MMPI-based scales, and more objective than Schafer’s (1954) approach to scoring defenses on the Rorschach—enhanced its appeal to clinical researchers. Although most DMI research has been carried out with clinical populations, it has also been adopted as a measure of defense change in the experimental laboratory. Considering the extensive use of this measure of defenses, a separate review of the DMI seems appropriate.