What is the scientific status and the "truth value" of the concept of defense mechanisms? Among contemporary psychologists, three types of answers to this question may be expected. Some would wholeheartedly endorse the theoretical, clinical, and research value of this notion; others would reject it outright. Between these two extremes, a large number of observers, perhaps the majority, would suspend their judgment. Their attitude, compounded of hope and doubt, would capitalize on defense as an interesting and promising concept. At the same time, these psy chologists would express skepticism and disappointment over its clinical limitations, theoretical ambiguity, and research failures. The present volume is primarily addressed to the audience of hopeful skeptics-those who have not given up on the notion of defense, yet have been frustrated by the difficulties of incorporating it into the modern, streamlined structure of psychology. To this end, we have brought together theoretical and empirical contributions germane to defense together with reports about their applications to clinical and personality assessment, especially in relation to psychopathology, psychosomatics, and psycho therapeutic intervention."

Drawing upon more than 500 literary and journalistic texts, this study is the first post-war discussion of the phenomenon of German enthusiasm for Switzerland across a period of 150 years. The numerous expressions of opinion on Germany's immediate neighbour are seen here as a tacit mentality-based accord on the part of the writing fraternity as to what the 'right' image of Switzerland was supposed to be. This accord was so consistent that the prevalent debating points and the changing constituents of that idealized image can be traced and reconstructed accurately throughout the period 1700 to 1850.

Der Autor reagiert mit dem Buch auf das anhaltende Interesse an der Reiseliteratur um 1800 - einer Zeit, in der Mobilitat fur die Menschen immer wichtiger wurde. Es gab eine zunehmende Zahl von Reisenden aller Couleur, und nicht wenige verspurten das Bedurfnis, ihre Erfahrungen der OEffentlichkeit mitzuteilen. Dabei bedienten sie sich ganz unterschiedlicher Ausdrucksformen: Die Bandbreite reichte vom wissenschaftlichen Bericht bis zur romanesken Schilderung. Der Band zeigt, wie facettenreich sich das Genre zwischen 1770 und 1830 entwickelte und wie komplex das Zusammenspiel zwischen Reise, deren literarischer Bearbeitung und Veroeffentlichung in einer Zeit des gesellschaftlichen Wandels war.

The book is focused on defense mechanisms as theoretical constructs as well as the possibilities of their empirical registration by different methods, and the application of these constructs in different fields of psychology with special regard to concurrent and predictive validity. It is argued that defense mechanisms are in many ways to be seen as integrative constructs, not necessarily restricted to psychoanalytic theory and that the potential fields of their application have a wide ranging scope, comprising many fields of psychology. Consequently empirical studies are presented from the fields of clinical and personality psychology, psychotherapy research and psychosomatic phenomena and diseases. Methodological questions have a heavy weight in most of these studies.
* Provides coverage of relevant literature
* Covers different fields of application
* Attempts an integration of the contstruct of defense mechanisms into mainstream psychology
* Provides explanations of the theoretical basis of the construct of defense mechanisms

Schriftsteller wie Johann Christoph Rost, Christian Ludwig Liscow, Salomon Gessner oder Garlieb Helwig Merkel, die heute nur noch Literaturhistorikern bekannt sind, avancierten wahrend ihrer Schaffenszeit zu Bestsellerautoren; ihren Werken bescheinigten die Zeitgenossen Originalitat und Ausstrahlungskraft. Die Nachgeborenen verweigerten ihnen jedoch die Aufnahme in den nationalen Kanon. In der sich ausdifferenzierenden Literaturgesellschaft des 18. Jahrhunderts, in der um die Anerkennung immer neuer asthetischer Konzepte, mithin und vor allem um (Markt-)Einfluss gestritten wurde, zeichnete sich bereits ihr Untergang ab. Sie gehoeren zu den Verlierern der fruhen Literaturgeschichtsschreibung. Was zum Aufstieg, vor allem aber zum Vergessen fuhrte, wird am Beispiel von elf Autoren aus dem Zeitraum zwischen Fruh- und Spataufklarung untersucht. Die Beschaftigung mit diversen Exklusionspraktiken versteht sich als ein Beitrag zur noch jungen historischen Kanonforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts.