Personality, Defenses, Mentalization, and Epistemic Trust Related to COVID-19 Containment Strategies: A Psychodynamic Perspective

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably influenced all the domains of people’s lives worldwide, determining a high increase in overall psychological distress and several clinical conditions. The study attempted to shed light on the relationship between strategies adopted to manage the pandemic, vaccine hesitancy, and distinct features of personality and mental functioning. Methods: The sample consisted of 367 Italian individuals (68.1% women, 31.9% men; M age = 37, SD = 12.79) who completed an online survey including an instrument assessing four response styles to the pandemic and lockdown(s) (RSPL; Tanzilli et al., 2021), the Personality Inventory for DSM-5-Brief Form (PID-BF; Krueger et al., 2013), the Defense Mechanisms Rating Scales-Self-Report-30 (DMRSSR- 30; Di Giuseppe et al., 2020, 2014), the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ; Fonagy et al., 2016), and the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ; Campbell et al., 2021). Results: Maladaptive response patterns to pandemic restrictions were related to dysfunctional personality traits, immature defense mechanisms, poor mentalization, and epistemic mistrust or credulity. Moreover, more severe levels of personality pathology was predictive of an extravertedmaladaptive response style to health emergency through the full mediation of low overall defensive functioning, poor certainty of others’ mental states, and high epistemic credulity. Conclusions: Recognizing and understanding dysfunctional psychological pathways associated with individuals’ difficulties in dealing with the pandemic are crucial for developing tailored mental health interventions and promoting best practices in healthcare services.