The Explanation of Personality Disorders Based on Emotional Self-Awareness: The Mediating Role of Defense Mechanisms

The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of defense mechanisms in the relationship between personality disorders and emotional self-awareness. The Study design was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population included all people with each of the personality disorders, who referred to the psychotherapy and counseling office of the first author of the article in Tehran province in 2019 & 2020, that a sample of 200 people was selected, by using the convenient sampling method, and they responded to the Millon Multiaxial Inventory-III (1994), the Emotional Self-Awareness Questionnaire by Grant et al., (2002) and the Defense Styles of Andrews et al. (1993). The correlation coefficients of research variables with the total score of personality disorders showed that emotional self-awareness is significantly negatively correlated with the overall score of personality disorder, and underdeveloped and neurotic defense mechanisms are significantly positively correlated with it. Also, the developed defense mechanisms are significantly mediating the relationship between personality disorders and emotional self-awareness, including schizoid, schizotypal, histrionic, borderline, narcissistic, dependent, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and the category of another personality disorders, and have a positive relationship with emotional self-awareness and a negative relationship with personality disorders. In other words, the less use of developed defense mechanisms leads to lower emotional self-awareness and greater grounds for the emergence of these personality disorders. The mediating role of neurotic defense mechanisms was significant in the two schizotypal and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders, and this defensive style had a positive relationship with personality disorder and a negative one with emotional self-awareness. The present study showed the relationship between a low level of emotional self-awareness and the emergence of personality disorders, as well as the relationship between the use of undeveloped and neurotic defense mechanisms and the emergence of personality disorders. Besides, it has shown that and the emergence of personality disorders can be explained based on the lack of emotional self-awareness, and defense mechanisms can be considered as mediating factors in this regard.