Alex Grimaldi May 13, 2018:

What about "coping behavior"? (See my answer for details)

Alex Grimaldi May 13, 2018:

According to what I found and the context of the source text, it feels like a "comportement refuge" (or "fallback behavior") of course is not about physically seeking a safe place, but rather psychologically, by behaving in a way that lowers stress. Note that such a behavior can be quite detrimental to relationships, but sometimes one feels compelled to act that way for their own sake, because diminishing stress becomes more important than other considerations. See the two references I cited, they are precisely about that.

Nikki Scott-Despaigne May 13, 2018:

"Refuge behaviour", as in the other question "comportement refuge agressif" is sometimes used in Evolutionary psychology, but not more generally in human psychology. Not in English anyway. As in my discussion post on the other question, I suspect that the author of the original FR has misued the term here. In human psychology it seems to relate to theories of attachment, where there is a return to a safe place/person in a situation of stress., a fairly literal meaning in fact, of returning to a safe haven. This does not seem quite right for this question where behaviour that is "agressif" or "manipulatoire" does not seem to have much to do with seeking a safe place/person.
Other suggestions are more likely to be correct. You might like to check with the client, as the term has probably been a little misused.
Also note that there are hits for "refuge-seeking" behaviour/-ior. In fact, if this is basically about "fight or flight" behaviours, then aggressive behaviour is surely on the "fight" rather than "flight" side, which makes the idea quite contradictory in the case of "comportement refuge agressif". Yes, I really am leaning in favour of misuse.

Charles Davis May 13, 2018:

The Google hits for "refuge behaviour" don't suggest to me that it is an established term in human psychology. "Escape behaviour" certainly is, but it means "a response that is designed to move away from aversive stimulus by withdrawal or entering a fantasy world". I don't think this is what "comportement refuge" means. More promising, perhaps, is "avoidance behaviour", also often called "avoidant behaviour" ("any behavioral act that enables an individual to avoid anticipated unpleasant or painful situations, stimuli, or events, including conditioned aversive stimuli"), though I'm not sure whether it's the equivalent; it doesn't seem to be found with "aggressive" or "manipulative". However, perhaps a lack of online examples doesn't matter at that level.

Daryo May 13, 2018:

withdrawing = not interested, not participating
taking refuge = escaping from danger / stress

not quite the same.

Shabelula May 13, 2018:

perhaps by "refuge" they mean "hideaway", a resort to such behaviour?
instead of withdrawing, I found but rare hits in Google