The clinical and theoretical importance of the fact that in the neurotic reality regresses just as the ego regresses has not been generally recognized. Psychoanalysis has accepted the neurotic's view of objective reality—of stimuli, the world, the culture—as something hostile that has to be combated. This tendency to interpret development in terms of defense has confused our understanding of the early preoedipal, magical, narcissistic processes of introjection, projection and identification. It has also confused for us the later phases of development, which raise problems of transformation of primary into secondary processes, 'translation' from unconscious to preconscious language, and the nature of the processes of sublimation. The clearer our distinction between preoedipal and Oedipal (defensive) types of development, the more apparent is the difference between reality perceived as an alien, hostile, finished product, and reality perceived as integrated, dynamic, and forever unfinished.