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In the beginning of every analysis the patient brings with him his major pressing problems which have driven him to seek analytic help, as well as his various resistances and defenses. To deal successfully with the character structure underlying the difficulties which are manifest, it becomes a technical necessity to analyze these various defense mechanisms.
In recent years, since the importance of defenses were pointed out by Anna Freud (1), many of them have been discussed at great length and with considerable thoroughness in the analytic literature. It is not my intention here to duplicate and reiterate what has been said before. Rather, I should like to describe a specific type of defense which I have met in my psychoanalytic practice in a number of men. This defense, from my observations, occurs very early in the analysis.
The specific ideas and wording derive generally from the type of occupation in which these men are engaged. The common denominator of the content is, at first, hinted and then stated rather boldly; namely that, by viture of the profession in which they are engaged, their connections, their particular knowledge or discipline, they are able to do the analyst some special good. From their standpoint, it is to the definite advantage of the analyst that he has taken them on in treatment, because they will make great, important and significant changes in his way of life. One distinctly has the impression with these men that they really