Discussions in the Hampstead Index on ‘The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence’: IV. The Mechanisms of Defence, Part 1

Anna Freud points out in Chapter 4 that Freud had originally used the term ‘defence’ for the ego's struggle against unpleasant ideas or affects. Later the term ‘repression’ was used instead, but in 1926 Freud returned to the use of ‘defence’ as the general term, while ‘repression’ was used to designate the specific measure which had been originally called ‘defence’.

She then suggests that we enquire into other specific modes of defence, and refers again to Freud's suggestion that there may be a special connection between forms of defence and particular illnesses, commenting that Freud has shown us that regression as well as reaction formation, isolation and ‘undoing’ occur in obsessional neurosis.

Anna Freud then refers to Freud's description of introjection (or identification) and projection as defensive mechanisms at work in neurosis. She reminds us that Freud described the processes of turning against the self and reversal, and sees these ‘vicissitudes of instinct’ as also reflecting mechanisms of defence. She points out that ‘every vicissitude to which the instincts are liable has its origin in some ego activity’ (47, 44)1.