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A neurosis is fundamentally a discharge of accumulated excitation which the ego either rejects, or of which it is not aware. Excitation can be accumulated by an increased influx in the time-unit (traumatic neurosis), or by a diminished discharge as a result of fear of the external world, or of command of the super-ego (psycho-neurosis). There is a particular link between neurosis and anxiety. Anxiety is a signal of threatening danger. The term 'danger' means that the ego considers a certain situation a potentially traumatic one. The signal, i.e. the anxiety, might increase to such an extent that the presumed danger turns into a trauma. The increase of the anxiety-reaction is due to chronic inhibition of discharge which leads to damming up of libido. The signal might thus fail, and the danger necessitate a defence against anxiety. Referring to traumatic neuroses the author mentions two types of traumata: external and internal ones. The importance of impulses as a source of danger is discussed. This danger is twofold: the external world might interfere, or the apparatus which provides satisfaction might fail. The author quotes the work of Melanie Klein and other English workers who maintain that the small child is inevitably exposed to traumatic situations. By remembering situations in which impulses were not satisfied the ego becomes hostile to these impulses, and suppresses them in order to avoid a similar frustration. The defence against impulses, however, is not explained by reducing it to the occasion when it first occurred. It is one of the achievements of psycho-analytical research that neuroses result from later experiences. Anna Freud, in speaking of a primary hostility of the ego against impulses, means, according to the author, a similar mechanism. It is based on memory-traces of traumatic situations which occurred at a time when the apparatus which provides satisfaction was not yet fully developed, and failed. The author rejects these hy