ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis has often succeeded in giving deeper understanding of the forces that form character and tracing them back to their unconscious sources. If a mental phenomenon cannot be fitted into the structure of conscious thought, that is because its roots lie in the unconscious, from which it derives its meaning and its power of resistance. Mistrust also corresponds to the projection of the individual’s own unconscious hate tendencies and suppressed hostile impulses directed against the outside world which are perceived internally and again displaced outside. The patient suffered in particular from her severe mistrustfulness; she felt lonely and neglected because she was unloved, had no friends and all attempts to establish closer relations with others failed as a result of her mistrust. From its place of suppression it sends out its offshoots of hate and hostility and, restrained by the censorship mechanism, makes use of the familiar mechanisms of reaction-formation, projection, etc.
