Repression: The Basic Ego Defence

Freud thought of repression as the basic ego defense, since it is only when repression is fragile or failing that other ego defenses come into play to reinforce and rescue it. Put differently, repression is an essential component or building block of the other ego defenses. To understand this, let’s look at an example of the ego defense of distortion, which is the reshaping of reality to suit one’s inner needs. A teenager who has been dumped by her boyfriend no longer recalls this episode (repression) and instead believes that it is she who dumped him (distortion).