ABSTRACT
The defense-mechanisms of the ego can be divided into three kinds: retreat, attack and coping. Retreat into one’s own unhappiness goes even so far as to shutting oneself into one’s apartment and disconnecting the phone. In contrast to those who used mechanisms of retreat on the one hand, attack on the other, are those who tried to cope with their situation in a positive and constructive way. During the first five days of the war, when there were the most dead, no news of this kind came through. Later the fallen were buried temporarily near the fronts; only much later did they get a permanent burial. A young secretary, herself a war widow, noted down the main ideas of what was said in the group with full knowledge and consent of the participants. There was rage, aggression aimed at different targets: sometimes the bearers of the bad tidings were attacked verbally, and in some cases even physically.
