Regression, as distinguished from the appearance of infantile behavior, implies a threat of chaos. Some patients seem to watch for an opportunity to regress in order to 'start afresh' under more favorable conditions. This definition of regression presumes the existence of a highly organized ego, including the existence of a false self. Under favorable early conditions, personal growth proceeds normally and 'the self processes continue active, in an unbroken line of living growth'. With unfavorable conditions, 'the individual is engaged in reactions to impingement and the self processes are interrupted'. The true self then becomes, as it were, encysted; a false self develops as the most successful defense designed to protect the true self. What proceeds from the true self feels real or good, whatever its nature; while what proceeds from the false self feels unreal, futile, or bad, however sensually satisfactory. The intensive study, over a period of six or seven years, of a seriously regressed patient, has led Winnicott to this and other formulations concerning the processes of regression.