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One particular way of viewing the initial ego-reality relationship places the ego in an essentially defensive mode of functioning, relating to external reality perceived as non-familiar and hostile. Another way of viewing it places the ego in an essentially synthetic and transformative mode of functioning, striving to reconstitute and transform endlessly the harmonious original unity of the primary narcissistic stage. What the ego or psychic apparatus would defend against would not be so much external reality perceived as hostile but rather its loss, that is, the loss of a satisfying integration with the world as it once existed.