Defense Styles of Narcissistic Personality Types: A Canonical Correlation

Immature defense mechanisms are often implicated in various personality disorders. This study investi- gated degrees of immaturity and types of defense mecha- nisms in a range of narcissistic personality disorders. 263 graduate and undergraduate students (156 female, 107 male) completed the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ, Andrews, Sing & Bond, 1993), Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI, Raskin & Hall, 1979), and Vulnerable Narcissistic Scale (VNS, Pimentel et al., 2004) in order to make distinction between 2 types of covert and overt narcissism. Analysis of findings showed: 1) vulnerable narcissism or covert type of narcissism was positively correlated to immature (such as devaluation) and neurotic defense mechanisms (such as pseudo-altruism), 2) grandiose narcissism or overt type of narcissism was negatively correlated with neurotic defense mechanisms and positively with immature defense mecha- nisms, 3) distinguishing between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism can prevent diagnostic mistakes. The implica- tions of this distinction in the therapeutic process of such personality disorders are also discussed.