When The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense was first published in German in 1936 it was at once recognized as a major contribution to psychoanalytic psychology, and its translation into English quickly followed. More than half a century later it enjoys the status of a classic and a founding text in ego psychology . Written by a pioneer of child analysis, and illustrated by fascinating clinical pictures drawn from childhood and adolescence, it discusses those adaptive measures by which painful and unwanted feeling-states are kept at bay or made more bearable.Anna Freud's arguments have a clarity and cogency reminiscent of her father's and the work is remarkable undated. Nothing stands still, but The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense has unmistakably passed the test of time.
Foreword to the 1966 Edition -- Translator's Note -- Theory of the Mechanisms of Defense -- The Ego as the Seat of Observation -- The Application of Analytic Technique to the Study of the Psychic Institutions -- The Ego's Defensive Operations Considered as an Object of Analysis -- The Mechanisms of Defense -- Orientation of the Processes of Defense According to the Source of Anxiety and Danger -- Examples of the Avoidance of Objective Unpleasure and Objective Danger -- Denial in Fantasy -- Denial in Word and Act -- Restriction of the Ego -- Examples of Two Types of Defense -- Identification with the Aggressor -- A Form of Altruism -- Defense Motivated by Fear of the Strength of the Instincts -- The Ego and the Id at Puberty -- Instinctual Anxiety During Puberty -- Conclusion
