The cycles of projected satisfaction of needs and desires and imaginary compensations for or exaggerations of failures to bring about wished for results precede the development of the psychological ego-self, and with the crystalisation of the latter it appears to the subject as if a point of stability has been achieved to counter the chaos of the cycles of desire and frustration, a way to tame the intensity of the imagination. Its initial appearance on the stage is a moment of joy. The ego-defenses are severely moderated versions of those imaginary compensations which now have a definite object to protect and the imagination itself becomes more differentiated and creative. These defenses are vessels, as it were, that still contain in locked-up form the original intensity, and hence they remain dangerous, like unexploded bombs.