Abstract
Freud (1917) considered the psyche to be a hierarchy of super- and subordinated instances, corresponding to the multitude of the individual’s drives and relations with the external world. Very often there are opposite and incompatible relations among those instances. He attributed the defense process and the object of it, “the defended,” to separate systems according to the contradictory nature of their function and their conceptual meaning. The defense process is activated in the “ego” (A. Freud, 1936), whereas the defended is generated in the “id” and “superego.” For the conscious observation of a defense mechanism, the ego is the medium through which an image of the two other instances can be grasped. The ego senses oncoming urges, as well as increased tension with its concomitant feelings of displeasure, and finally the resolution of the tension in the satisfying experience of pleasure.
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Ehlers, W. (1993). The Structure and Process of Defense in Diagnosis of Personality and in Psychoanalytic Treatment. In: Hentschel, U., Smith, G.J.W., Ehlers, W., Draguns, J.G. (eds) The Concept of Defense Mechanisms in Contemporary Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8303-1_17
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