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Essential hypertension may be the result of an exaggerated use in time and intensity of the same mechanisms which ‘physiologically’ produce a temporary rise in the blood pressure in certain conflict situations. This exaggerated use may be based on a character core which can be described as ‘hysteria in statu nascendi’. This is usually found at the bottom of psychosomatic character formation. Patients suffering from hypertension suppress the instinctual tendency to exaggerate the use of their normal alarm signals, but in doing so they exaggerate the normal use of preferred defence mechanisms. Psychosomatic defence strategy is considered to be more mature than hysterical defence strategy.