How are psychodynamic conflicts associated with personality functioning? A network analysis.

Personality functioning and psychodynamic conflicts are central constructs in psychoanalytic theories of psychopathology as well as in many psychodynamic treatment models. Although there has been a longstanding conceptual discussion on how they relate to each other, empirical evidence on this question is still scarce. In this study, we explore the associations between psychodynamic conflicts and levels of structural integration (which can be used synonymously with personality functioning) by means of a partial correlation network analysis in a sample of = 220 outpatients interviewed and rated according to Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis (OPD-2).