In the compensated basic adjustments, primitive and adjustment tendencies are oppositional. These modes of adaptation include the compensated Externalizer (or "Ec") and the compensated Internalizer (or "Ic") groups. Here again, the categories are general, with a variety of different personality patterns, subsumed under each of them.
The theory postulates that, wherever there is compensation, at least some of the individual's primitive characteristics are retained.. This theoretical position is logical, if only because an individual who compensates is compelled to do so along the lines which are laid down by his inherent abilities. Theoretically, then, the "Ec" adjustments are ideational orientations which have been achieved on the basis of externalized aptitudes and talents, thus Inevitably retaining externalized traces. Similarly, an internalized quality will adhere to the externalized compensation of the "Ic."