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[[Neurotic ]] defenses are procedures developed by the ego which can be considered damaging to [[mental ]] [[life]]. Their function is avoiding the [[anxiety ]] and [[guilt ]] caused by inhibitions connected with [[sexual ]] desires and [[aggressive ]] tendencies. They reveal the complexity and vicissitudes of the [[links ]] between [[affect ]] and [[representation]].

In 1896, [[Freud ]] demonstrated that [[defense ]] is the "core" of the neurotic [[psychic ]] [[mechanism]]. This conclusion followed his [[analysis ]] of the neuro-[[psychoses ]] of defense (1894a). In this [[text ]] he linked [[repression ]] to [[hysteria]], and designated conversion as a defense. Conversion was later placed in the [[category ]] of [[symptoms]]. In his early writings on hysteria, Freud spoke of "[[abreaction]]," a kind of [[hallucinatory ]] reproduction of [[memories ]] or of emotional release as a means for dissolving conversion symptoms. Later, repression (the "[[model]]" of the defenses) came to be considered the essential first line of defense of the obsessive (or [[phobic]]) [[subject]].

It was not until 1926 that "[[isolation]]" replaced repression as the major mechanism of [[obsessional ]] [[neurosis]]. Freud saw in the [[obsessional neurosis ]] a [[separation ]] of representation ([[image]], [[thought]], [[memory]]) from the [[drive ]] and its affect, while this affect, through "[[displacement]]" or "transposition," established a link with [[another ]] representation that pushes the earlier representation, with which it is [[irreconcilable]], into the [[unconscious]], making it inaccessible to memory.

In The [[Interpretation ]] of [[Dreams ]] (1900a), Freud presented [[regression ]] as a type of defense, to the extent that he considered it as "an effect of a [[resistance ]] opposing the [[progress ]] of a thought into [[consciousness ]] along the normal path" (p. 546), adding that "regression plays a no less important part in the [[theory ]] of the [[formation ]] of neurotic symptoms than it does in that of dreams" (p. 548).

In "Repression" (1915d), he resumed his minute [[analyses ]] of neurotic defenses in connection with the "[[return ]] of the [[repressed]]," whose similarity with the mechanisms of [[dream ]] [[work ]] was evident. He focused on the linking of affect and representation through the [[processes ]] at work in anxiety or (phobic) hysteria, whose proximity with conversion hysteria and obsessional neurosis he emphasized. "Displacement" is the major defense of the phobic neurotic, while for the [[obsessional neurotic ]] there is "a [[substitute ]] by displacement, often a displacement on to something small or insignificant" (p. 157). Finally, with conversion hysteria, there is the "belle indiffèrence" (p. 156, [sic]): at the same [[time ]] as a factor of regression, one also of "[[condensation]]." This is because a portion of the repressed representation of the drive has attracted to itself, by condensation, the [[totality ]] of the [[cathexis]], as well as a tendency for [[identification]].

[[Other ]] defenses were considered by Freud: [[projection]], a very basic type of defense Freud alluded to throughout his work; delusional [[jealousy ]] (1922b), which is a defense against [[homosexuality]]; the [[distinction ]] between [[internal ]] and [[external]], which is a means for the ego to [[defend ]] itself against that which is experienced as disagreeable ([[Civilization ]] and Its Discontents, 1930a).

The analysis of defenses has been refined and extended in the work of Helene Deutsch (1926), Otto Fenichel (1932), and Maurice Bouvet (1967-68), among [[others]]. For the phobic neurotic, "avoidance" of anxiety, "canceling" and "[[reaction formation]]" were added. [[Sublimation ]] (Freud, 1905, 1910) was finally considered as a [[separate ]] kind of defense ([[Hartmann]], 1955), since it is the only one that implies a [[change ]] of the kind of [[energy]].

This refinement of the analysis of defenses has allowed the consideration of neurosis as other than an essentially pathological [[system]]. Currently, these defenses are also described in the context of what is called normal-neurotic psychic [[activity]]. On the other hand, the study of [[traumatic ]] [[neuroses ]] since Freud, including mechanisms of [[repetition]], [[splitting]], and [[denial]], as well as the study of psychic functioning in what have been called borderline processes, have probably contributed to a certain vulgarization of these defensive manifestations, which, nevertheless, remain essential for an [[understanding ]] of [[Freudian ]] [[metapsychology]].

[[Bibliography]]