The Ego and The Mechanisms of Defense [Revised] 0823680355

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THE EGO AND THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE REVISED EDITION

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...

Anna Freud

id

written, the

aretically far-reaching.

and the edition

volume she has

r

stood th

again how good

a

most influential

Re-reading

book

it is

it

in this

andhow well

new

it

has

Brie."

I

_ 7 ne New York

Times Book Review

THE WRITINGS OF ANNA FREUD Volume

II

THE EGO AND THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE ANNA FREUD

Revised Edition

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITIES NEW YORK

PRESS, INC.

Copyright 1966, by International Universities Press, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card

Number: 66-30463

Eighth Paperback Printing, 1983

The

present revised edition is based on the 1937 translaby Cecil Baines, who acknowledged his gratitude to Dr. Ernest Jones and Mr. James Strachey for many helpful

tion

suggestions.

is

The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense Volume II of The Writings of Anna Freud

Manufactured in the United States of America

Foreword

to the

1966 Edition

As indicated

in the

title,

this

book

deals exclusively with

with the ways and means by

one particular problem,

i.e.,

which the ego wards

unpleasure and anxiety, and exer-

off

impulsive behavior,

cises control over

affects,

and

instinc-

tive urges.

To

investigate

manner, and to

an

activity of the

treat

it

on

ego in

this painstaking

a par with the processes in the

unconscious id was a comparatively novel venture at the original

date of publication.

Much

has changed in this

respect in the thirty years which have elapsed since then until,

by now, the ego

as a psychic structure

a legitimate object of psychoanalytic study.

was

sufficient to

enumerate and

illustrate

to inquire into their chronology,

and

has

If,

become

in 1936,

it

ego mechanisms,

to assess the role of

the defense organization as a whole for the maintenance of health or illness, this can

no longer be done today with-

FOREWORD TO THE

vi

1

966 EDITION

out relating the ego's defensive achievements to aspects,

i.e.,

functions, It

to

its

its

primary deficiencies,

autonomies,

its

its

other

apparatuses and

etc.

proved not feasible to incorporate such

issues into the

Mechanisms of Defense without carrying out large-scale revisions and without incidentally destroying the unity and present circumscribed usefulness of the book. For this rea-

son

it

was decided to leave the

original text intact,

and

to

more recent thinking to a further volume in which the aspects of Normality and Pathology in Childhood are pursued, especially with regard to their developmental and

relegate

diagnostic implications.

Anna Freud, London, February 1966

LL.D., Sc.D.

5

Contents

Foreword to the 1966 Edition

v

Part I

Theory of the Mechanisms of Defense 1.

THE EGO AS THE SEAT OF OBSERVATION

3

Definition of Psychoanalysis The Id, the Ego, and the Superego in Self-Per-

3

ception

The Ego

5

6

as Observer

Inroads by the Id and by the Ego Considered as Material for Observation 2.

THE APPLICATION OF ANALYTIC TECHNIQUE TO THE STUDY OF THE PSYCHIC INSTITUTIONS

8

11

Hypnotic Technique in the Preanalytic Period

11

Free Association

12

Interpretation of Dreams Interpretation of Symbols vii

1

16

CONTENTS

Vlll

Parapraxes

Transference

TRANSFERENCE OF LIBIDINAL IMPULSES TRANSFERENCE OF DEFENSE ACTING IN THE TRANSFERENCE The Relation between the Analysis of the Id and

That of the Ego Diffi-

25

THE EGO'S DEFENSIVE OPERATIONS CONSIDERED AS AN OBJECT OF ANALYSIS The Relation

of the

Ego

to the Analytic

Defense against Instinct Manifesting y

28

Method

Itself as

30

sistance

4.

and Affects

THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE Psychoanalytic

5.

31

33

34 35

42

Theory and the Mechanisms of

Defense

A

28

Re-

Defense against Affects Permanent Defense Phenomena Symptom Formation Analytic Technique and the Defense Against Instincts

19 22

24

One-Sidedness in Analytic Technique and the culties to Which It Leads 3.

17 18 18

Comparison of the Results Achieved by the Different Mechanisms in Individual Cases

42

44

Suggestions for a Chronological Classification

50

ORIENTATION OF THE PROCESSES OF DEFENSE ACCORDING TO THE SOURCE OF ANXIETY AND DANGER

54

Motives for the Defense against Instincts SUPEREGO ANXIETY IN THE NEUROSES OF ADULTS OBJECTIVE ANXIETY IN INFANTILE NEUROSIS INSTINCTUAL ANXIETY ( DREAD OF THE STRENGTH OF THE INSTINCTS) Further Motives for the Defense against Instinct Motives for the Defense against Affects

54 54 56 58

60 61

CONTENTS Verification of

Our Conclusions

IX

in Analytic Prac-

62

tice

Considerations Bearing upon Psychoanalytic Ther-

63

apy

Part II

Examples of the Avoidance of Objective Unpleasure and Objective Danger Preliminary Stages of Defense 6.

DENIAL IN FANTASY

7.

DENIAL IN

8.

RESTRICTION OF THE EGO

69

WORD AND ACT

83

93

Part III

Examples of Two Types of Defense 9.

10.

IDENTIFICATION WITH THE AGGRESSOR

109

A FORM OF ALTRUISM

122

Part IV

Defense Motivated by Fear of the Strength of the Instincts Illustrated by the Phenomena of Puberty 11.

.

THE EGO AND THE

ID

AT PUBERTY

137

INSTINCTUAL ANXIETY DURING

PUBERTY Asceticism at Puberty Intellectualization at Puberty

Object Love and Identification at Puberty

152

153 158 165

CONCLUSION

173

Bibliography

177

Index

181

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2012

http://archive.org/details/egomechanismOOfreu

Part I

THEORY OF THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE

1

CHAPTER

The Ego

as the Seat

of Observation

DEFINITION OF PSYCHOANALYSIS There have been periods analytic science

when

in the

the theoretical study of the individual

ego was distinctly unpopular. lysts

development of psycho-

had conceived the idea

Somehow

or other,

many

ana-

that, in analysis, the value of

the scientific and therapeutic work was in direct proportion

depth of the psychic

to the

strata

upon which attention

was focused. Whenever interest was shifted from the deeper

say,

—whenever, that research was deflected from the the ego—

felt

that here was a beginning of apostasy from psycho-

to the

more

superficial psychic strata

id to

analysis

as

a

whole.

The view

it

to

was

held was that the term

psychoanalysis should be reserved for the relating to the unconscious psychic

life,

new

i.e.,

discoveries

the study of

repressed instinctual impulses, affects, and fantasies. 3

is

With

THEORY OF THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE

4

problems such

that of the adjustment of children or

as

adults to the outside world, with concepts of value such as

those of health and disease, virtue or vice, psychoanalysis

was not properly concerned.

It

should confine

tions exclusively to infantile fantasies carried life,

its

investiga-

on into adult

imaginary gratifications, and the punishments appre-

hended

in retribution for these.

Such a definition of psychoanalysis was not infrequently

met with

in analytic writings

and was perhaps warranted by

the current usage, which has always treated psychoanalysis

and depth psychology there was

some

up

as

it

synonymous terms. Moreover,

justification for

be said that from the built

as

it

in the past, for

earliest years of

was on an empirical

our science

of the

accuracy

we should

But the definition immediately

id.

when we apply

it

may

theory,

was pre-eminently

basis,

a psychology of the unconscious or, as

its

it

say today,

loses all claim to

to psychoanalytic therapy.

From

the beginning analysis, as a therapeutic method, was con-

cerned with the ego and of the id

and

means

an end.

to

of

its

aberrations: the investigation

mode of operation was And the end was invariably its

correction of these abnormalities

ego to

its

When

always only a the same: the

and the restoration

of the

integrity.

the writings

of

Freud, beginning with Group

Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

(

1921

)

and Beyond

the Pleasure Principle (1920), took a fresh direction, the

odium

of analytic unorthodoxy

no longer attached

to the

study of the ego and interest was definitely focused on the ego institutions. Since then the term "depth psychology" certainly does not cover the research.

whole field of psychoanalytic At the present time we should probably define

the task of analysis as follows: to acquire the fullest possible

THE EGO AS THE SEAT OF OBSERVATION knowledge of

the three institutions of which

all

5

we

believe

the psychic personality to be constituted and to learn what are their relations to

That

is

one another and to the outside world.

to say: in relation to the ego, to explore

its

boundaries, and

of

its

its

functions,

and

to trace the history

dependence on the outside world, the

superego; and, in relation to the the instincts,

i.e.,

id,

contents,

its

and the

id,

to give an account of

of the id contents,

and to follow them

through the transformations which they undergo.

THE ID, THE EGO, AND THE SUPEREGO IN SELF-PERCEPTION

We

all

know

that the three psychic institutions vary greatly

in their accessibility to observation. id

—which

Our knowledge

was formerly called the system Ucs.

acquired only through the derivatives which into the systems Pes.

and

and Cs.

If

make

of the

—can their

be

way

within the id a state of calm

satisfaction prevails, so that there

is

no occasion

for

any instinctual impulse to invade the ego in search of

and there

gratification

unpleasure,

we can

to produce feelings of tension

learn nothing of the

follows, at least theoretically, that the id

idis

and

contents. It

not under

all

conditions open to observation.

The

situation

superego.

Its

is,

of course, different in the case of the

contents are for the most part conscious and

so can be directly arrived at by endopsychic perception.

Nevertheless, our picture of the superego always tends to

become hazy when harmonious and the such

ego.

We

moments

relations exist

between

then say that the two coincide,

the superego

is

i.e.,

it

at

not perceptible as a separate

institution either to the subject himself or to

an outside

THEORY OF THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE

6

observer. Its outlines

become

when

clear only

The

the ego with hostility or at least with criticism.

becomes perceptible

ego, like the id,

in the state

when

produces within the ego: for instance, evokes a sense of

confronts

it

its

super-

which

it

criticism

guilt.

THE EGO AS OBSERVER Now is

means that the proper

this

always the ego. It

which we

When

two

institutions.

the relations between the two neighboring powers id

its

our observation

medium through

so to speak, the

is,

try to get a picture of the other

—ego and — tion

field for

are peaceful, the former

fulfills

to admira-

role of observing the latter. Different instinctual

impulses are perpetually forcing their way from the id into the ego, where they gain access to the motor apparatus, by

means

of

which they obtain

gratification. In favorable cases

the ego does not object to the intruder but puts energies at the other's disposal ceiving;

and confines

its

own

itself to per-

notes the onset of the instinctual impulse, the

it

heightening of tension and the feelings of unpleasure by

which sion

this

is

when

accompanied and,

gratification

whole process

is

finally,

the relief from ten-

experienced. Observation of the

gives us a clear

and undistorted picture

of

the instinctual impulse concerned, the quantity of libido

with which

The

ego,

it is

if it

the picture at

cathected, and the aim which

it

pursues.

assents to the impulse, does not enter into all.

Unfortunately the passing of instinctual impulses from

one institution to the other

may be

the signal for

all

man-

ner of conflicts, with the inevitable result that observation of the id

is

interrupted.

On

their

way

to gratification the

THE EGO AS THE SEAT OF OBSERVATION id impulses

must

7

pass through the territory of the ego

and

here they are in an alien atmosphere. In the id the so-called ''primary process" prevails; there

is

no

synthesis of ideas,

affects are liable to displacement, opposites are ally exclusive

not mutu-

and may even coincide, and condensation

occurs as a matter of course.

The

governs the psychic processes

is

sovereign principle which

that of obtaining pleasure.

In the ego, on the contrary, the association of ideas ject to strict conditions, to

is

sub-

which we apply the compre-

hensive term "secondary process"; further, the instinctual

impulses can no longer seek direct gratification

—they

are

demands of reality and, more than and moral laws by which the control the behavior of the ego. Hence

required to respect the

conform to

that, to

superego seeks to

ethical

these impulses run the risk of incurring the displeasure of institutions essentially alien to

criticism

them. They are exposed to

and rejection and have to submit

to every kind of

modification. Peaceful relations between the neighboring

powers are at an end.

The

instinctual impulses continue to

pursue their aims with their energy,

and they make

the hope of overthrowing

on

its

and

side

becomes

own

peculiar tenacity

it

by a surprise

suspicious;

it

attack.

to invade the territory of the id. Its purpose

defensive

measures,

The

ego

proceeds to counterattack

the instincts permanently out of action by priate

and

hostile incursions into the ego, in

designed

to

means secure

is

to put

of appro-

own

its

boundaries.

The

picture of these processes transmitted to us by

of the ego's faculty of observation

the

same time much more

institutions in action at

longer do

we

is

means

more confused but

valuable. It

at

shows us two psychic

one and the same moment.

see an undistorted id impulse but

an

No

id im-

THEORY OF THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE

8

pulse modified by

the ego.

The

some defensive measure on the

task of the analytic observer

picture, representing as

it

it

may

to split

up the

does a compromise between the

separate institutions, into

the ego, and,

is

part of

its

component

the

parts:

id,

be, the superego.

INROADS BY THE ID AND BY THE EGO CONSIDERED AS MATERIAL FOR OBSERVATION In

all this

we

are struck

by the

from

fact that the inroads

the one side and from the other are by no

means equally

valuable from the point of view of observation. All the defensive measures of the ego against the id are carried out silently

and

them

invisibly.

them

reconstruct

The most that we can we can never

in retrospect:

ever

do

is

to

really witness

in operation. This statement applies, for instance, to

The ego knows nothing of it; we are aware of it only subsequently, when it becomes apparent that something is missing. I mean by this that, when we

successful repression.

try to

vidual,

form an objective judgment about a particular

we

we should

realize that certain id impulses are absent

expect to

make

their

only assume that access to the ego i.e.,

this tells us

The same is

that they have

is

all,

we can

permanently denied

succumbed

to repression.

nothing of the process of repression is

which

appearance in the ego in

pursuit of gratification. If they never emerge at

to them,

indi-

But

itself.

true of successful reaction formation,

which

one of the most important measures adopted by the ego

as a

permanent protection against the

id.

Such formations

appear almost unheralded in the ego in the course of a child's

development.

We

cannot always say that the ego's

attention

THE EGO AS THE SEAT OF OBSERVATION

9

had previously been focused on the

particular

contrary instinctual impulse which the reaction formation replaces.

As

knows nothing of the rejection the whole conflict which has resulted in

a rule, the ego

of the impulse or of

new

the implanting of the

might

easily take

ego, were

it

it

for a

spontaneous development of the

not that definite indications of obsessional ex-

aggeration suggest that that

characteristic. Analytic observers

it is

conceals a long-standing conflict. Here again, ob-

it

servation of the particular

mode

anything of the process by which

We

and

of the nature of a reaction

note that

of defense does not reveal

has been evolved.

it

the important information which

all

we

have acquired has been arrived at by the study of inroads

from the opposite

side,

namely, from the id to the ego.

obscurity of a successful repression

is

transparency of the repressive process is

reversed,

when

i.e.,

conflict fense.

only equalled by the

when

the repressed material

be observed in neurosis. Here

we can

The

movement returns, as may the

trace every stage in the

between the instinctual impulse and the ego's de-

Similarly, reaction formation

can best be studied

when such formations

are in the process of disintegration.

In such a case the

inroad takes the form of a reinforce-

ment

id's

of the libidinal cathexis of the primitive instinctual

impulse which the reaction formation concealed. This en-

way into consciousness, and, for a time, instinctual impulse and reaction formation are visible within the ego side by side. Owing to another func-

ables the impulse to force

—

tion of the ego of affairs,

which

its is

its

tendency to synthesis

—

this

condition

particularly favorable for analytic ob-

servation, lasts only for a

few moments at a time. Then a

fresh conflict arises

between

a conflict to decide

which of the two

id derivative is

and ego

activity,

to keep the upper

THEORY OF THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE

10

hand

or

what compromise they

forcement of ego

is

its

will adopt. If

successful, the invading force

and peace

through

rein-

energic cathexis the defense set up by the

reigns once

more

from the

in the psyche

unfruitful for our observations.

—

id

is

routed

a situation

most

2

CHAPTER

The

Application of Analytic

Technique

to the

Study of

the Psychic Institutions

In

my

first

chapter

I

have described the conditions under

which psychoanalytic observation of the psychic processes has had to be conducted. In what follows

I

propose to give

an account of the way in which our analytic technique, it

has developed, has accommodated

itself

as

to these condi-

tions.

HYPNOTIC TECHNIQUE IN THE PREANALYTIC PERIOD In the hypnotic technique of the preanalytic period the role of the ego

was

still

entirely negative.

The purpose

of

the hypnotist was to arrive at the contents of the unconscious

and he regarded the ego merely

in his work. It

as a disturbing factor

was already known that by means of hypnosis 11

THEORY OF THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE

12 it

was possible to eliminate, or at any rate to overpower, the

patient's ego.

The new

feature in the technique described in

Studies on Hysteria (1893-1895) was this: that the physician

took advantage of the elimination of the ego to gain access to the patient's unconscious

way

to

—now known

as the id

which had hitherto been blocked by the

ego.

—the Thus

the goal aimed at was the revelation of the unconscious; the ego was a disturbing factor and hypnosis was a getting rid of

came

material

duced it

it

it

temporarily.

When

to the ego,

a piece of unconscious

and the

effect of thus forcibly bringing

up the symptom. But the

ego took no part in the therapeutic process. intruder only so long as

the physician

ment

a

it

was

itself

It tolerated

who had induced hypnosis. Then it new struggle to defend itself against which had been forced upon

of the id

came about

nique

—the

it,

revolted that ele-

and so the

Thus

that the greatest triumph of hypnotic tech-

complete elimination of the ego during the

period of investigation results

the

under the influence of

laboriously achieved therapeutic success was vitiated. it

of

to light in hypnosis, the physician intro-

into consciousness was to clear

and began

means

—proved

and disillusionment

as to

prejudicial to

permanent

the value of the technique

set in.

FREE ASSOCIATION Even

in free association

—the method which has since —the of the ego

re-

placed hypnosis as an aid to research at first is

still

a negative one. It

no longer

eliminate

and

is

to refrain

from

is

true that the patient's ego

forcibly eliminated. Instead,

itself,

role

it

is

required to

criticizing the associations,

to disregard the claims of logical connection,

which are

THE APPLICATION OF ANALYTIC TECHNIQUE be legitimate. The ego

at other times held to

requested to be silent and the id

promised that difficulties if

its

is

is,

13 in fact,

invited to speak

and

derivatives shall not encounter the usual

they emerge into consciousness.

when

never promised that,

they

make

Of

their

course,

it is

appearance in

the ego, they will attain their instinctual aim, whatever that

may

be.

The

warrant

trol of

valid only for their translation into

is

word representations:

does not entitle them to take con-

it

the motor apparatus, which

emerging. Indeed, this apparatus

advance by the

their real

is

is

purpose in

put out of action in

strict rules of analytic

technique.

Thus we

have to play a double game with the patient's instinctual

hand encouraging them

impulses, on the one

themselves and, on the fication

of the

—

which incidentally

a procedure

numerous

other, steadily refusing

to express

them

grati-

gives rise to

one

in the handling of analytic

difficulties

technique.

Even today many beginners it

is

in analysis

essential to succeed in inducing their patients really

and invariably

to give

cation or inhibition, tal rule

all

i.e.,

their associations

to

mean

this ideal

if

part of the physician

its

were

for after all

the conjuring up again of the

tion of hypnosis, with

without modifi-

obey implicitly the fundamen-

of analysis. But, even

would not represent an advance, ply

have an idea that

now

it

realized,

it

would sim-

obsolete situa-

one-sided concentration on the

upon the

such docility in the patient

is

id.

Fortunately for analysis

in practice impossible.

The

fundamental rule can never be followed beyond a certain

The ego keeps silence for a time and the id derivatives make use of this pause to force their way into consciousness. The analyst hastens to catch their utterances. Then the ego bestirs itself again, repudiates the attitude of point.

THEORY OF THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE

14

passive tolerance

which

it

has been compelled to assume,

and by means of one or other of

customary defense

its

mechanisms intervenes in the flow of associations. The patient transgresses the fundamental rule of analysis, or, as

we

say,

he puts up 'resistances." This means that the inroad

by

of the id into the ego has given place to a counterattack

the ego

upon the

id.

The

observer's attention

verted from the associations to the resistance,

content of the id to the activity of the ego.

now

is

i.e.,

The

di-

from the

analyst has

an opportunity of witnessing, then and there, the putting into operation by the latter of one of those defensive measures against the id

which

which are so obscure, and

have already described and

I

it

now behoves him

He

the object of his investigation.

to

make

then notes that with

it

this

change of object the situation in the analysis has suddenly changed. In analyzing the id he

taneous tendency of the id derivatives to his exertions

and the

by the spon-

assisted

is

the surface:

rise to

which he

strivings of the material

is

trying to analyze are similarly directed. In the analysis of

the ego's defensive operations there

community

of aim.

of course,

is,

The unconscious elements

no such

in the ego

have no inclination to become conscious and derive no advantage from so doing. Hence any piece of ego analysis

much

less satisfactory

than the analysis of the

proceed by circuitous paths,

it

influence

on the

is

to reconstruct

patient's associations.

of the effect produced

it

is

from

the nature reversal,

it

to

etc.

kind of defense the ego has employed in

So

From

it

—whether be omission, —we hope discover what

displacement of meaning,

the analyst's business

defense mechanism.

is

has to

cannot follow out the ego

activity directly, the only possibility its

id. It

When

first

of

all

he has done

its

intervention.

to recognize the

this,

he has accom-

THE APPLICATION OF ANALYTIC TECHNIQUE plished a piece of ego analysis. His next task

what has been done by the defense, restore to

its

i.e.,

has been isolated back into

undo and

and to bring that which

its

true context.

more from the

When

he turns

re-established the severed connections,

the

to

to find out

place that which has been omitted through

repression, to rectify displacements,

tion once

is

15

he has

his atten-

analysis of the ego to that of

id.

We

what concerns

see then that

us

is

not simply the

own when

enforcement of the fundamental rule of analysis

for its

sake but the conflict to which this gives

only

observation

is

focused

and the direction of sides of the

human

now on

interest

being

the id and

now on

the ego

twofold, extending to both

whom we

can speak of psychoanalysis,

method

is

rise. It is

have before

as distinct

we

us, that

from the one-sided

of hypnosis.

The various can now be

other

means employed

classified

without

in analytic technique

difficulty,

whether the attention of the observer

is

according

directed to

to

one

side or the other.

INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS The

situation

when we

are interpreting our patient's

and when we are listening to same.

The

his free associations

dreamer's psychic state differs

the patient during the analytic hour.

little

When

dreams is

the

from that of

he obeys the

fundamental rule of analysis he voluntarily suspends some functions of the ego; in the dreamer this suspension takes place automatically under the influence of sleep. tient

that

made to lie at rest on the he may have no opportunity is

The

pa-

analyst's couch, in order

to gratify his instinctual

THEORY OF THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE

l6

wishes in action; similarly, in sleep, the motor system

brought to a

standstill.

And

is

the effect of the censorship,

the translation of latent dream thoughts into manifest

dream content, with the distortions, condensations, displacements, reversals, and omissions which this involves, corresponds to the distortions which take place in the associations

under the pressure of some

resistance.

Dream

interpretation, then, assists us in our investigation of the id,

insofar as

thoughts

it is

successful in bringing to light latent

(id content),

institutions

and

and

dream

in our investigation of the ego

their defensive operations, insofar as

it

enables us to reconstruct the measures adopted by the censor

from

their effect

upon the dream thoughts.

INTERPRETATION OF SYMBOLS One

by-product of dream interpretation, namely, the under-

standing of dream

symbols,

success of our study of the universally valid relations

and

specific

word

contributes

id.

largely

between particular

or thing representations.

of these relations enables us to

to

the

Symbols are constant and

draw

id contents

The knowledge

reliable inferences

from

conscious manifestations as to the unconscious material

behind them, without having

laboriously to reverse

first

some measure which the ego has adopted technique of translating symbols standing, or,

more

correctly, a

in defense.

The

a short cut to under-

is

way

of plunging

from the

highest strata of consciousness to the lowest strata of the

unconscious without pausing at the intermediate strata of

former ego

activities

which may

particular id content to

in time past

assume a

specific

have forced a

ego form.

knowledge of the language of symbols has the same

The

sort of

THE APPLICATION OF ANALYTIC TECHNIQUE

17

value for the understanding of the id as mathematical for-

mulae have

mulae may be used with advantage. one

is

arrived

way

ignorant of the at.

Such

for the solution of typical problems.

in

It

for-

does not matter

which they were

if

originally

But, though they help to solve the problems, they

do not contribute to our understanding of mathematics. In the same way, by translating symbols

we may

reveal the

contents of the id without really gaining any deeper psychological understanding of the individual with

whom we

are dealing.

PARAPRAXES From time

to time

we

obtain further glimpses of the uncon-

scious in another way, in those irruptions of the id are

known

As we know, these

as parapraxes.

not confined to the analytic situation. They

which

irruptions are

may

occur at

any time when, in some special circumstances, the vigilance of the ego (again

is

relaxed or diverted

owing to some

reinforced.

special circumstances)

Such parapraxes, especially

of the tongue sis,

and an unconscious impulse

when they

and

forgetting,

may

in the

is

suddenly

form of

illuminate as with a flash of lightning

part of the unconscious

slips

of course occur in analy-

some

which we have perhaps long been

endeavoring to interpret analytically. In the early days of analytic technique such windfalls

were welcomed

as afford-

ing a well-nigh irrefutable proof of the existence of the

unconscious to patients analytic insight.

Then,

who tended

too, analysts

demonstrate by means of

easily

to be impervious to

were glad to be able to

understood examples

vari-

ous mechanisms, such as those of displacement, condensation,

and omission. But, generally speaking, the importance

THEORY OF THE MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE

l8

of these chance occurrences for analytic technique dwindles in

comparison with that of those irruptions of the id which

are deliberately brought in to assist our analytic work.

TRANSFERENCE The same id

theoretical distinction

between observation of the

on the one hand and observation of the ego on the other

may be drawn

in the case of that

which

is

perhaps the most

powerful instrument in the analyst's hand: the interpreta-

V^Jion of thejransierence. ByJrjjnsference)we mean all those i^nOC impulses experienced by the patient in his relation with the

&

analyst which are not newly created lytic situation

by the objective ana-

—indeed,

but have their source in early

—object

very earliest

the

and are now merely revived the rpppHHnn rnmpykinn Because

relations

under the influence of

these impulses are repetitions and." not are of incomparable value as a

means

the patient's past affective experiences.

new

creations they

of information about

We shall see that we

can distinguish different types of transference phenomena according to the degree of their complexity.

\y

Transference of Libidinal Impulses

The

first

type of transference

is

extremely simple.

The

pa-

tient finds himself disturbed in his relation to the analyst

by passionate emotions, ety,

actual situation.

and

e.g., love,

which do not seem to be feels

The

justified

by

and

anxi-

the facts of the

patient himself resists these emotions

ashamed, humiliated, and so

manifest themselves against his insisting

hate, jealousy,

will.

on the fundamental rule of

forth,

Often

it

when is

analysis that

they

only by

we

sue-

THE APPLICATION OF ANALYTIC TECHNIQUE

*9

ffOO-f^S

ceed in forcing a passage for them to conscious expression. Further investigation reveals the true character of these affects

—they

irruptions

are

of the

id.

They have

their

source in old affective constellations, such as the oedipus

and the castration complex, and they become comprehensible

and indeed^are

analytic situation tive situation.

When

they help us to

and provide

fill

we

disengage them from the

insert Jjbenijnto

some

infantile affec- y>(or

up an amnestic gap

affective

life.

S*h

in the patient's past

about

Generally he

his infantile

quite willing

is

to cooperate with us in our interpretation, for feels that

k