A patient with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder discusses his failing marriage in a detached, overly technical manner, listing statistics about divorce rates, while showing no visible emotion about the topic itself. Which defence mechanism does this best illustrate?
- A Splitting
- B Acting out
- C Intellectualization ✓
- D Projection
Correct answer: C. Intellectualization
Explanation
Intellectualization is the hallmark defence of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder: affect is stripped from an idea by focusing excessively on abstract, logical detail. Isolation of affect and undoing are the other classically described defences of this disorder. Splitting is characteristic of borderline personality disorder, acting out of antisocial personality disorder, and projection of paranoid personality disorder, so those pairings eliminate the remaining options.
Reference: Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry, 11th ed.
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