This discussion of the concept of defence is summarized by the author: 'I have attempted to indicate some of the problems involved in the conception of defence. In a restricted sense, defence is viewed as the sum of those unconscious ego activities which work towards maintaining a neurotic equilibrium and thus hinder the emergence of the transference neurosis; they tend to prevent the crystallization of the neurotic conflicts in the analytic process. Defences are directed against instinctual drives as well as against anxiety, and those vanguards of the drives, the emotions. I have endeavoured to show that the mechanisms of defence are complex entities which may involve several defensive positions, and that it is fruitful to