The relationships between temperamental traits and professional burnout and defense mechanisms of psychotherapists

Aim of the study A previous research paper showed that individual defense styles mediate the relationships between temperamental traits and professional burnout among psychotherapists. It was decided to check which defense mechanisms may be involved in these relationships and examine the relationships that exist between temperamental traits and professional burnout and defense mechanisms in a group of psychotherapists. Subject or material and methods Eighty-two individuals working in the psychotherapy profession participated in the study. Three psychological tools were used: (1) FCB-TI(R), (2) DSQ-40, (3) OLBI, as well as own questionnaire used to describe the study group. Results The conducted analyses showed correlations between temperamental traits and defense mechanisms and between professional burnout and defense mechanisms of psychotherapists. Discussion Psychotherapists who are characterized by a high level of perseverance and emotional reactivity use neurotic and immature defense mechanisms to a greater extent, and mature defense mechanisms to a lesser extent. In turn, psychotherapists who are characterized by a high level of briskness and endurance use neurotic and immature defense mechanisms to a lesser extent. Conclusions Psychotherapists should presumably avoid the use of defense mechanisms such as somatization, displacement, schizoid fantasy, isolation, acting out, projection and undoing. It is possible that the more frequent use of these defense mechanisms by psychotherapists translates into a higher level of professional burnout. Instead, it seems beneficial to use suppression and pseudoaltruism, the use of which probably reduces the level of burnout in a group of psychotherapists. However, these results would require repetition in a larger research group to confirm the revealed relationships and further exploration.