Repression can be thought of as "motivated forgetting:" the active but <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/unconscious">unconscious </a>forgetting of unacceptable drives, emotions, ideas, or memories. Unsurprisingly, repression is often confused with denial. Whereas denial relates to external stimuli, repression relates to internal, that is, mental, stimuli. Nonetheless, denial and repression often work together and may be difficult to disentangle.

Repression: Motivated Forgeting

A couple of friends who are holidaying with a number of other people start arguing and completely lose their tempers. The next day, they put their differences to one side and behave as though nothing had happened so as not to cast a cloud over the group and ruin the holiday. That day, they share some good times and special moments, and by the evening it has become safe enough to bring up the argument and put it behind them. By dealing with their argument like this, they have deepened rather than undermined their <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/friends">friendship </a>.

An Example Of Suppression

<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/freudian-psychology">Freud </a>thought of repression as the basic ego defense, since it is only when repression is fragile or failing that other ego defenses come into play to reinforce and rescue it. Put differently, repression is an essential component or building block of the other ego defenses. To understand this, let’s look at an example of the ego defense of distortion, which is the reshaping of reality to suit one’s inner needs. A <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/adolescence">teenager </a>who has been dumped by her boyfriend no longer recalls this episode (repression) and instead believes that it is she who dumped him (distortion).

Repression: The Basic Ego Defence

"<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/neuroticism">Neurosis </a>” is an old-fashioned term that essentially describes the various forms in which repressed material can resurface (poor concentration, irritability, anxiety, and so on). In Studies on Hysteria (1895), Sigmund Freud and his colleague Josef Breuer first formulated the theory that neuroses have their origins in deeply <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/trauma">traumatic </a>and consequently repressed experiences.

Repression - Trauma - Neurosis

Treatment, argued Freud and Breuerrequires the patient to recall these repressed experiences into consciousness and confront them once and for all, leading to a sudden and dramatic outpouring of emotion ("catharsis") and the attainment of insight. In the course of treatment, the patient is likely to display "resistance" in the form of changing the topic, blanking out, falling asleep, arriving late, or missing appointments. In fact, such behavior merely suggests that he/ she is close to recalling repressed material but, for the moment, still afraid of doing so.

Repression - Catharsis - Insight

Repressed material, though unconscious, is no less present, and can (and usually does) resurface in disturbing forms. As well as a lack of insight and understanding, the inability to process and come to terms with repressed material is associated with a range of psychological problems such as poor <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/attention">concentration</a>, irritability, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/anxiety">anxiety</a>, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/insomnia">insomnia</a>, nightmares, and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/depression">depression </a>; maladaptive and destructive patterns of behaviour such as anger and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/anger">aggression </a>in the face of reminders of the repressed material; and any number of superimposed ego defenses.

The Repressed Material Resurfaces - With A Vengeance

The mental operation of suppression is similar to repression but with one crucial difference, namely, the "forgetting" is conscious rather than unconscious. Thus, suppression is the conscious and often rational decision to put an uncomfortable (although not totally unacceptable) stimulus to one side, either to deal with it at a later time or to abandon it altogether on the grounds that it is not worth dealing with. As it is a conscious operation, suppression is not, strictly speaking, a form of self-deception, but rather the conscious analog of repression.

Repression VS Suppression

In psychoanalytic theory, ego defenses are unconscious processes that we deploy to diffuse the fear and anxiety that arise when who we think we are or who we think we should be (our conscious ‘superego’) comes into conflict with who we really are (our unconscious ‘id’).There are a great number of ego defenses, and the combinations and circumstances in which one uses them reflect on one's personality. One could go so far as to argue that the self is nothing but the sum of its ego defenses. While people cannot entirely escape from ego defenses, they can gain some insight into how they use them.

Self Deception Or, Ego Defences

We deceive ourselves to protect ourselves, but the fact remains: we deceive ourselves; and, so, we harm ourselves. We can’t do a lot about it, but maybe we can do a little, if we know what it is that we do. A 10-part series.