This monograph consists of two reports from separate sections of the Kris Study Group. The first, reported by Charles Brenner, addresses the question of whether it is possible to assess therapeutic improvement in terms of modifications of defensive patterns. The members of the section describe two interesting clinical examples in which a properly timed interpretation was followed by a substantial improvement in symptoms and in behavior. In the two instances, they attempted to specify the difference in the defenses apparent before and after the effective interpretation. They concluded that generalizations about changes in defenses following successful interpretations are not meaningful if each defense is viewed in isolation from the total clinical picture. Change is more appropriately delineated in terms of an increased ability to tolerate in consciousness derivatives of previously defended-against conflicts. What becomes lessened is the need to ward off a frightening impulse, not the means that was