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'The neurotic conflict [always] takes place between the id and the ego' and never between id instincts contradictory in aim unless the ego is making use of one of them as a defense against the other. With this as his thesis Fenichel describes the dynamic interrelations between id, ego and superego in the production of the neurotic conflict and shows how 'The problem of anxiety is the essence of any psychology of neurotic conflicts'. Anxiety—first experienced as a flood of unmastered tension by the passive infantile ego—is later used by the ego, when it judges the situation to be dangerous, as a signal indicating 'the necessity to start defensive action'. When, because of unconscious conflicts leading to severe repression, adequate discharge of an instinct is blocked, the anxiety meant by the ego to be no more than a danger signal sets off the original archaic flood of tension resulting in an anxiety 'spell' or panic. Since anxiety is the expression of an automatic occurrence in the depth of the organism as a consequence of the ego's reaction, it is used by the ego as a defense against the id, and thus 'the forces the ego uses against the instincts are derivatives of the instincts themselves'.