#redirect {{Topp}}défense{{Bottom}} ==Sigmund Freud==From his earliest works, [[defense mechanismFreud]]situated the [[concept]] of [[defence]] at the heart of his [[theory]] of [[neurosis]]. [[Defence]] refers to the reaction of the [[ego]] to certain interior stimuli which the [[ego]] perceives as dangerous. ==Defense Mechanisms==Although [[Freud]] later came to argue that there were different "mechanisms of defence" in addition to [[repression]],<ref>{{F}} ''[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Question of Lay-Analysis]]'', 1926d. [[SE]] XX, 179</ref> he makes it clear that [[repression]] is unique in the [[sense]] that it is constitutive of the [[unconscious]]. [[Anna Freud]] attempted to classify some of these mechanisms in her book ''[[Anna Freud|The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence]]'' (1936). ==Jacques Lacan==[[Lacan]] is very critical of the way in which [[Anna Freud]] and [[ego-psychology]] [[interpret]] the concept of [[defence]]. He argues that they confuse the concept of [[defence]] with the concept of [[resistance]].<ref>{{Ec}} p. 335</ref> For this [[reason]], [[Lacan]] urges caution when discussing the concept of [[defence]], and prefers not to center his concept of [[psychoanalytic treatment]] around it. ==Resistance==When he does discuss [[defence]], he opposes it to [[resistance]]; whereas [[resistances]] are transitory [[imaginary]] responses to intrusions of the [[symbolic]] and are on the side of the [[object]], defences are more permanent [[symbolic]] [[structure]]s of [[subjectivity]] (which [[Lacan]] usually calls [[fantasy]] rather than [[defence]]). This way of distinguishing between [[resistance]] and [[defence]] is quite different from that of [[other]] [[school]]s of [[psychoanalysis]], which, if they have distinguished between [[defence]] and [[resistance]] at all, have generally tended to [[regard]] [[defence]]s as transitory phenomena and [[resistance]]s as more [[stable]]. ==Desire and Defence==The opposition between [[desire]] and [[defence]] is, for [[Lacan]], a [[dialectic]]al one. Thus he argues in 1960 that, like the [[neurotic]], the [[pervert]] "[[defends]] himself in his [[desire,]]" since "desire is a defence (''défense''), a [[prohibition]] (''défense'') against going beyond a certain [[limit]] in ''[[jouissance]]''.<ref>{{E}} p. 322</ref> In 1964 he goes on to argue:<blockquote>"To desire involves a defensive [[phase]] that makes it identical with not wanting to desire."<ref>{{S11}} p.235</ref></blockquote> ==See Also=={{See}}* [[Ego-psychology]]* [[Fantasy]]||* [[Neurosis]]* [[Perversion]]||* [[Repression]]* [[Resistance]]||* [[Structure]]* [[Subject]]||* [[Treatment]]* [[Unconscious]]{{Also}} ==References==<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small"><references/></div> [[Category:Freudian psychology]][[Category:Psychoanalysis]][[Category:Treatment]][[Category:Practice]]{{OK}} __NOTOC__
