Discussion in the Hampstead index on ‘the ego and the Mechanisms of Defence’: XIV. Conclusion

In the final short Conclusion Anna Freud summarizes her attempt to classify defence mechanisms according to the particular anxiety situations which evoke them. The connection between individual experiences and particular modes of defence is still unclear, but it seems that denial tends to be used in relation to threats connected with fears of castration and the loss of love objects. Altruistic surrender seems ‘to be a specific means of overcoming narcissistic mortification’ (190, 173).1 The parallels between defences against external and internal dangers are more clearly visible. Thus repression of drive derivatives is paralleled by denial. Reaction formation has its counterpart in fantasies in which the real situation is reversed. Inhibition shows a correspondence to ego restrictions which avoid unpleasure from outside. Intellectualization matches the alertness of the ego to external danger. All defensive measures against the drives have their counterpart ‘in the ego's attempts to deal with the external world around it’ (191, 174). Anna Freud continues with the suggestion that the various defence mechanisms against threats from inside and from outside have their origin in various aspects of the instinct's function. The defences draw on ‘the essential nature of instinctual processes’ (192, 175). One cannot fail to be impressed by the achievement of the ego in developing its mechanisms of defence, and every neurotic symptom shows that the ego's ‘plan for defence has miscarried’ (193, 175-6). But ‘the ego is victorious when its defensive