Fifty-one hospitalized male psychiatric patients were grouped according to clinical judgments regarding major conflict area (sex, aggression, dependency) and according to 'defensive orientation' (externalization, internalization, acting out). Word lists and pictures dealing with conflict-relevant and neutral material were presented to each of the groups in a rigidly controlled experimental design, and differences in recognition thresholds for the two types of material appeared between the groups in the hypothesized directions. Patients whose defensive orientation was toward externalization and acting out reported lower recognition thresholds for conflict-relevant stimuli than for neutral stimuli, while the 'internalizers' reported higher recognition thresholds for conflict-associated material. The relevance of this experiment to the hypothesis of perceptual defense is discussed.