Defenses are often conceptualized too mechanically, as though they respond to an anxiety signal as a machine responds to a switch. Clearly, this does not correspond to clinical observation. Defenses should be seen as agents of gratification as well as of frustration; as expressing not only the enmity of ego and id, but also the unity. Technically, the patient's tenacious clinging to his defenses is more successfully handled if interpretations deal with the gratifications obtained through defenses as well as the anxiety which is avoided.