"In the conflict between the ego, the id, and reality, something has to give. In a neurosis, according to Freud, the ego accepts reality and its energy is directed against the id, but to maintain the repression it must ignore that part of reality associated with the repressed wishes. In a psychosis the ego is overwhelmed by the id, severs its connection with reality, and proceeds to create for itself a new outer and inner world. The healthy reaction, according to Freud, like a neurosis, does not ignore reality; like a psychosis it creates a new world, but, unlike psychosis it creates a new world in the real world; that is, it changes reality."
Norman O Brown Life against Death - The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History (1959) p.154
