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[[Psychotic ]] defenses are [[psychic ]] [[processes ]] involving [[unconscious]], or more-or-less [[conscious]], attempts to deal with [[reality]]. They take the [[form ]] of [[disavowal ]] or [[withdrawal ]] as the [[subject ]] tries to avoid or circumscribe conflicts encountered in his [[relationship ]] with the [[external ]] [[world]].In "The Neuro-[[Psychoses ]] of Defense" (1894a), [[Freud ]] wrote: "There is, however, a much more energetic and successful kind of defense. Here, the ego rejects the incompatible [[idea ]] together with its [[affect ]] and behaves as if the idea never occurred to the ego at all. But from the [[moment ]] at which this has been successfully done the subject is in [[psychosis]]" (p. 58)—to which he added in 1896 that "<i>[[projection]]</i>," as a "defensive [[symptom]]," [[signified ]] "<i>distrust of [[other ]] [[people]]</i>" (p. 184).The chief psychotic defenses in Freud's view were <i>[[foreclosure]]</i> (<i>[[Verwerfung]]</i>, reformulated by [[Lacan ]] in 1956), <i>projection,</i> and <i>delirium.</i> All of these were in evidence in Freud's [[analysis ]] of the [[case ]] of President [[Schreber ]] (1912a). The <i>disavowal</i> (of reality) as a defense (1927e) was described in the context of the [[castration ]] [[complex]], particularly in the case of [[fetishism]].

The [[work ]] of Melanie [[Klein ]] underscored the major [[role ]] of the defense [[mechanism ]] of projective [[identification ]] in psychotic functioning. Such post-[[Kleinian ]] authors as Wilfred R. Bion and Donald Meltzer viewed it also as an essential mechanism of psychic growth. Later, other mechanisms became the subject of important [[conceptual ]] developments: projection, [[splitting ]] (of ego or [[object]]), and the disavowal/idealization pair.Psychic defenses are not confined to psychotics. Since Bion, they have been deemed a part of the [[mental ]] functioning of every [[individual]], as long as they have not yet acquired an invasive and systematic quality.

# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1894a). The neuro-psychoses of [[defence]]. SE, 3: 41-61.

# Green, André. (1971). La projection: De [[l'identification ]] projective au projet. In La [[folie ]] privé. [[Paris]]: Gallimard.# [[Lacan, Jacques]]. (1966). Commentaire sur la Verwerfung. In [[Écrits]]. Paris: Seuil. (Original work published 1956)