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This paper investigates four important departures from current mainstream technique in Anna Freud's The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (1936).1 First, the analyst can observe moments of intrapsychaic conflict at the conscious surface—when repressed impulses surface and the ego then opposes them. Second, these small pieces of clinical material can be used to great effect in the technical process of gradually and systematically uncovering the vast realm of unconscious contents. Third, she felt that analyzing conflict solutions [compromise formations] is not helpful for seeing the ego's defensive functioning. Last, the analyst's observational stance requires very sharp attention to moment-to-moment variations in what the patient actually says, not a matter of free floating attention or listening with the third ear. The point of this investigation is to compare her technical suggestions with technique today as it is presented by Charles Brenner. The overall purpose is to begin a discussion that will lead toward enabling analysts to evaluate the analytic validity and research potential of the two technical points of view.