ABSTRACT
Before starting to study this condition, it may be useful to glance at the history of defence theory, so that the subject may be put in perspective. Defences were originally postulated when patients resisted analytic work. When transference analysis was introduced, the resistance took on a new dimension. Nonetheless they persisted: interpretations-especially those which referred to instinctual and infantile drives-which seemed evident to the analyst were at first denied by the patient. However, it was held that, as long as the analyst did not capitulate, resistances could be overcome so long as time was given for working through: the unconscious content would emerge from the unconscious and become accepted. These findings were based mainly on the analysis of hysterical patients, and they are still relevant to much analysis of the transference neuroses: we still pay attention to repressed contents and endeavour to make them conscious by following and interpreting the patient’s defensive use of symbolization, displacement, compensation, conversion, reaction formation, etc., with a view to making conscious what is unconscious.
