Everything about Psychological Repression totally explained
Psychological repression, or simply
repression, is the
psychological act of excluding
desires and
impulses (wishes,
fantasies or feelings) from one's
consciousness and attempting to hold or subdue them in the
subconscious. Since the popularization of
Sigmund Freud's work in
psychoanalysis, repression is now accepted as a common
defense mechanism in everyday life.
Footnotes
Repressed memories
It is often claimed that
traumatic events are repressed, yet it appears that the trauma more often
strengthens memories due to heightened emotional or physical sensations.
However, the repression of information chosen for consideration in the present or future - because it's viewed as aversive - has a powerful relationship to what will be drawn out of the unconscious to be made available for honest, conscious deliberation. This has an enormous amount of supporting
research in the area of
cognitive dissonance theory started in the 1950s by
Leon Festinger among others.
Stages
In the Primary Repression phase, an infant learns that some aspects of reality are pleasant, and others are unpleasant; that some are controllable, and others not. In order to define the "
self", the infant must repress the natural assumption that all things are
equal. Primary Repression then is the process of determining what is self, what is other; what is good, and what is bad. At the end of this phase, the child can now distinguish between desires, fears, self, and others.
Secondary Repression begins once the child realizes that acting on some desires may bring
anxiety. This anxiety leads to repression of the desire. The threat of punishment related to this form of anxiety, when internalized becomes the "superego", which intercedes against the desires of the "ego" without the need for any identifiable external threat.
Abnormal repression, or complex
neurotic behavior involving repression and the superego, occurs when repression develops and/or continues to develop, due to the internalized feelings of anxiety, in ways leading to behavior that's illogical, self-destructive, or anti-social.
A
psychotherapist may try to reduce this behavior by revealing and re-introducing the repressed aspects of the patient's
mental process to his conscious
awareness, and then teaching the patient how to reduce any anxieties felt in relation to these feelings and impulses.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Psychological Repression'.
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