It is misleading to speak of goal-directed strivings as simple forces or tendencies. Seeking fulfilment of wishes is a highly organized process, and severe frustration of these organized strivings does not leave them intact but tends to disintegrate them into more elementary strivings which had previously been subordinated to the original goal. Wish-fulfilling fantasies and symbolic symptomatic acts are the products of such disintegrations of goal-directed strivings. The two fundamental techniques for successfully dealing with an obstacle are (1) attacking and overcoming it, or (2) yielding and modifying one's demands to correspond with what is really attainable. There are also two types of unsuccessful reaction. One may continue to struggle with the obstacle, refusing to recognize that the struggle is futile. This may be called fixation upon the obstacle. Neurotic substitution is the other unsuccessful method of adapting one's demands to reality.