In 1935, she became director of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Training Institute and the following year she published her influential study of the "ways and means by which the ego wards off depression, displeasure and anxiety", The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence.
En 1935 converteuse en directora do Instituto de Adestramento Psicanalítico de Viena e o seguinte ano publicou o seu influente estudio das "formas e medios polos que o ego repele a depresión, a desaprobación e a ansiedade", Das Ich und die Abwehrmechanismen.