Katan states that 'ego distortion' can be differentiated from the function of the ego in borderline cases. Ego distortion is a reaction of the ego to an early conflict, which remains unchanged and visible when the patient is faced with the same conflict. In ego distortion part of the ego has not shared the development of the ego upwards. In borderline cases there is a tendency to regression and separation from reality which the ego struggles against. In such cases the ego uses the Oedipal conflict to maintain a relationship with reality. By contrast the ego defends itself against the Oedipal impulses in a neurotic structure (ego distortion). Katan applies these distinctions to a case presented by Gitelson in his paper, On Ego Distortion, and interprets this case as an example of a neurosis in which the ego has developed a coherent system of defenses against the Oedipal relationships.