ABSTRACT
We have been discussing drives, conflicts, anxiety, and the occasions when a defense leads to morbid symptoms. The theory that applies to clients also applies to us. The attempt by the Freudians to erect a universal theory could be reassuring, but leveling is seldom thought elevating. Awareness that all of us use defenses is experienced as a comedown and we react with resolves to give up such nonsense. Alas, like the conscious decision to be sincere, self-analysis is an oxymoron. How can we penetrate an unconscious that, by definition, is closed to us? We need outside help if only because the other person is probably not repressing the same content. Perhaps all one can do is to join in my clinician’s prayer, “And forgive us our defenses as we forgive those who defend themselves against us.”
