The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence

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.