A Note on the Assessment of Idealization

Abstract

In a series of studies using the Lerner Defense Scale (H. Lerner & P. Lerner, 1980) for assessing primitive defenses, inconsistent and at times perplexing findings have been reported regarding the defense of idealization. A major study examining personality variables, including defense, in a nonclinical population—ballet students—and comparing them to those of patients suffering eating disorders, yielded findings related to the defense of idealization and its assessment. Herein, the results of that study are reviewed and then discussed in light of recent psychoanalytic formulations regarding idealization.