You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
November 18, 1963. PROTOTYPES OF DEFENSES AND DEFENSIVE BEHAVIOR. Max M. Stern, M.D.
While prototypes of defenses—defined in the literature as 'early direct reflex action of a purely physical nature'—have been hitherto determined mostly in terms of analogy, Dr. Stern attempts to highlight the genetic path from somatic defensive pattern in infancy to psychic elementary defenses by establishing the anticipatory process as mediator between both. His thesis is that elementary psychic defenses are variegated and attenuated anticipatory repetitions of postnatal somatically-determined defenses against disintegration. This does not equate psychic with psychologic processes but refers to some interaction, to 'connections