This paper deals with the problem of neurotic anxiety, that is of anxiety which is not justified by external circumstances. Such anxiety is explained as a reaction to an internal danger situation created by emotional conflict in early life. An attempt is made to reconstruct the nature of this conflict in the light of evidence based on the psycho-analysis of patients suffering from anxiety symptoms, and the primitive defences called out by this danger are discussed. The conclusion drawn is that these defences, though temporarily successful, are in the long run ineffective, and actually set up a vicious circle which perpetuates the very danger it aims at averting.