ABSTRACT
One way of dealing with aspects of the self, which, if consciously experienced, might give rise to unbearable anxiety or psychic pain, is by using a variety of defence mechanisms. Everyone needs and uses defences at some time-the question is, ‘to what extent and when?’ Sometimes, over-enthusiastic workers in psychiatry or its fringes appear to feel that no one should have any defences, regarding them as a modern form of sin; but an uninvited attack on someone’s defences is as unjustified as any other form of assault. Another link with religious attitudes is the neurotic person’s belief that it is as bad to sin in thought as in deed, so that there seems no alternative to either completely repressing a sexual or murderous feeling or acting on it. Maturity includes a capacity to acknowledge and tolerate such feelings within ourselves without acting on them except when appropriate.
