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Bergler's thesis is that every neurotic symptom is built on three layers. One, the id presents an unconscious forbidden wish; the superego objects. Two, the unconscious ego then presents a primary defense; the sadistic superego finds this insufficient. Three, the unconscious ego then prepares a secondary defense which is grudgingly accepted.
Only the third layer enters the structure of the symptom. In traditional 'two-layer analysis', the primary defense is mistaken for the forbidden impulse, which leaves the real culprit unanalyzed. The patient furthers this by readily admitting to the lesser crime of the primary defense. Since punishment is unreasonably extorted by the severely sadistic superego (daimonion), the ego is happy to take the punishment for the lesser crime.
The basic neurosis is caused by conflict due to masochistic (oral) regression. The opposite tendency, moral sadism, is the primary defense. The defense against the latter appears in the symptom. When the secondary defense is analyzed, the neurotic often uses quasi-moral attitudes to defend his pseudo aggression and to punish the parent figures with their own admonitions.
Four cases are discussed to support these views.
Bergler's ideas seem dogmatic and overextended. His views of the psyche with its severely sadistic superego component (daimonion)—'Man's inhumanity to man is parallel only by man's inhumanity toward himself'—is unduly pessimistic.