ABSTRACT
Defences are established for a good reason. The hope is to stay pain-free and protected, to manage a stressful situation in the only way that seems possible–and when challenged it can feel like an attack on all that holds us together. When defences are fiercely held it can be almost impossible to be really aware of ourselves and think: it can feel just too threatening. For whatever the cause, whatever the past difficulties, that stuck position is alive and active in the present in our minds and in the expectations and assumptions of others: in feelings such as suspicion and reluctance to trust; of assuming abandonment if another even momentarily turns away. An analytic relationship has to find some fledgling wish for help in it–however much counterbalanced by suspicion, resentment and fear of hope that might end in disappointment.
