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<blockquote>A [[technique ]] peculiar to [[compulsion ]] [[neurosis]], is that of ''isolation''. Its reference is likewise to the motor sphere; and it consists in the interposition, after an unpleasant [[experience]], as also after some act of the [[subject]]'s own which is of [[significance ]] in the [[sense ]] of his neurosis, of a refractory period in which [[nothing ]] more is allowed to happen, no [[perception ]] registered, and no [[action ]] performed. This at first [[sight ]] strange [[behavior ]] soon betrays its relation to [[repression]]. The effect of this isolation is the same, as in repression with amnesia. The isolation phenomena of compulsion neurosis reproduce this technique, but intensified by motor means and with a [[magic ]] intent motor isolation is to furnish a guaranty of the interruption of [[coherence ]] in [[thinking]].<ref>{{PoA}} Ch. 6</ref></blockquote>

"Isolation" is the [[defense ]] [[mechanism ]] characteristic of [[obsessional ]] neurosis. The [[links ]] of a [[thought]], [[idea]], impression, or [[feeling ]] with [[other ]] [[thoughts ]] or behaviors are broken by means of pauses, [[rituals]], magical [[formulas]], or other such devices.

In "The Neuro-[[Psychoses ]] of Defense," [[Freud ]] conceived of defense, in [[hysteria ]] as well as in phobias and obsessions, as a [[form ]] of isolation: "defense against the incompatible idea [is] effected by separating it from its [[affect]]; the idea itself [remains] in [[consciousness]], even though weakened and...