Processes of Defence: Introduction to a New Theory

I would like to thank the Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis for sponsoring this conference, including its editor, Charles Levin, who has been very supportive of the idea, and Andrew Brookt, for originally suggesting the conference theme. I would also like to thank the hard-working members of the planning committee, especially Sarah Usher and Cyril Levitt, who made it happen, as well as Werner Bohleber, Brian Robertson, and the members of the afternoon panel, who have taken the time and shown the interest to think about some of the ideas in my book and connect them to their own thoughts. I will start things off by presenting a very short summary of some of the main ideas in my book, and a few new thoughts.

The book began from some very simple clinical observations. In looking at the defences used by patients, I noticed some basic distinctions. Now, we don't actually see defences directly; what we see are resistances, which are manoeuvres that people use to avoid becoming aware of various things. In all forms of psychoanalytically informed therapy, we attempt to make people aware of certain things that are outside of their awareness, because it seems that as long as certain conflicts, memories, and feelings remain unconscious, they lead to repetitive behaviours, to symptoms, and to emotional turmoil. In the attempt to make the unconscious conscious, we meet with what Freud called resistances, and from the varied nature of these resistances, we make inferences about the nature of certain processes or mechanisms, which Freud called defences, which work to keep feelings, wishes, and memories out of awareness.

As an example, a female patient, B, in psychoanalysis mentioned her younger brother in passing, while talking about childhood fights with her