Divided schizophrenics into reactive and process groups (20 males and 20 females in each group) on the basis of three criteria: Premorbid adjustment, role orientation, and paranoid‐nonparanoid status. All were administered the Defense Mechanism Inventory, which measures five clusters of defenses. Reactives had significantly higher scores than process patients on Turning against Self and Projection. Process patients had significantly higher scores on Reversal. No significant differences between groups were found on Turning against Object and Principalization, nor were there significant sex differences. The results support the probability of different defensive preferences for the reactive and process syndromes.