:: Development of the ability to repress :: Consequences of repression :: An example of repression and the development of neurosis in childhood :: Repression of trauma :: Repression as a psychological defense :: Psychoanalytic treatment of neurosis
Repression is the elimination of unwanted contents and associated experiences from consciousness. crowding out
can be defined as
forgetting
.
But when they talk about repression
, they do not mean “just” forgetting, but forgetting
mental contents (representations) that are unacceptable to consciousness
- these are, most often, thoughts about morally incompatible desires or memories of traumatic experiences (or thoughts “ simply” about undesirable events in the past or future).
“Not all difficulties associated with attracting attention or with memories represent repression.
.
Only in those cases where it is obvious that a thought, feeling or perception of something becomes unacceptable to awareness due to its potential to cause disturbance, does it become the basis for the intended operation of this defense. Other deficiencies in attention and memory may be caused simply by ordinary mental selection
of the important from the trivial.” (Nancy McWilliams. “Psychoanalytic Diagnostics”)
We are displacing
a lot of unpleasant events for yourself, as well as promises made that you don’t want to keep.
In the case of repression
of unimportant events, repression occurs without consequences, and unwanted memories or intentions (representations) and associated affects safely disappear from consciousness.
But in the case of strong experiences, affect
is suppressed only for a while.
In this case, the repression is considered failed
.
“...clinical observation forces us to decompose what we have hitherto understood as something unified, for it shows us that, along with representation, it is necessary to take into account something else that embodies the drive, and this other is also subject to the fate of repression, but completely different from the repressed representation. Behind this other element of the mental correlate of desire, the name of affect
... From this it follows that the fate of affect, the mental correlate of drive, is much more important than the fate of its representation, and that it is this moment that is decisive in assessing the process of repression. If repression fails to prevent the occurrence of an unpleasant sensation or fear, then we can say that it has failed, even if it had achieved its goal in terms of representation.” (Freud. “Repression”)
The main feature of repression
consist in the fact that only an unwanted representation (idea) can be repressed (forgotten), and it will be securely “buried” in the unconscious.
And affect can only be suppressed
.
As a result of repression, affect is split off
from the representation associated with it and becomes, as Freud put it,
free as a bird
.
The stronger the suppressed affect, the more mental energy is required to keep it in the unconscious, the higher the likelihood that it will penetrate back into consciousness in a modified form as a dream or symptom. Repression is a very energy-consuming mechanism
:
“The process of repression should not be imagined as a process once accomplished that has lasting consequences, such as the killing of a living being, which then becomes dead forever; repression, on the contrary, requires a long-term effort, and when it disappears, its success becomes doubtful, so that the need for a new act of repression arises. We can imagine that what is repressed produces a continuous pressure in the direction of consciousness, in contrast to which it is necessary to create the same constant pressure in the opposite direction. The maintenance of repression therefore presupposes a constant tension of forces...” (Freud. “Repression”)
This feature of the repression
discussed in detail and illustrated in the article
The essence of psychoanalysis in two examples
.
Development of the ability to repress
crowding out
- This is a natural
mechanism for protecting
the psyche from extreme stress as a result of internal conflicts.
“... one can discern the basal adaptive nature of this process [of repression]. If one is constantly aware of his entire arsenal of impulses, feelings, memories, fantasies and conflicts, he will be constantly inundated with them.” (Nancy McWilliams. “Psychoanalytic Diagnostics”)
But this ability is not given to us at birth.
“... repression is not a mechanism that exists from the very beginning, because it cannot occur before a sharp division has formed between conscious and unconscious mental activity, and that the essence of repression is the removal and exclusion of any content from consciousness. » (Freud. “Repression”)
The ability to repress completes its formation only by the age of five. By this age, the psyche is structurally
is divided into three components:
Id
,
Ego
and
Super-Ego
.
Dynamically,
the psyche is divided into
conscious
and
unconscious
:
The id
is entirely in the unconscious,
the ego
is mostly in the conscious,
the super-ego
is mostly in the unconscious.
The ego
is where anxiety develops.
Repressions are always produced by the Ego
at the request of
the reality principle
, and often under the pressure
of the Super-Ego
.
The process of repression occurs unnoticed by the conscious part of the Ego
.
The ability to repress is associated with the disintegration of the Oedipus complex
, the formation of
the Super-Ego
and, as a consequence, with
infantile amnesia
- it is as a result of these processes that we remember very little or do not remember at all what happened to us before the age of five.
Thanks to these processes, children's intrapsychic conflicts
associated with
the Oedipus complex
remain in the unconscious - but this does not mean that they disappear into oblivion.
Of course, repression
works not only in childhood.
Freud even wrote a book about this, “ Psychopathology in Everyday Life
.”
We encounter repression very often, for example, when we forget about a planned event that we don’t want to go to. Repression can also be expressed in forgetting the names of people or dates that are unpleasant to us. But in the case of serious trauma in late childhood or adulthood (for example, rape), as a rule, repression does not occur, but isolation of affect
(the affect is suppressed, but the memory remains) or
dissociation
(this is a process similar to isolation, but it occurs further, the person gets the impression that this did not happen to him, and even at the moment of injury he could see himself from the outside).
Rationalization
Rationalization is the artificial creation of logical explanations for actions and failures. This is necessary to maintain a positive judgment of oneself.
For example, you need to call some person and agree with him about something. Let's say that for some reason you are embarrassed or even afraid of this. Then you begin to rationalize your refusal to make the call: it’s too late, you don’t need it at all, etc.
In many ways, we hesitate to admit to ourselves and unconsciously come up with rationalizations. They tend to be very logical and therefore difficult to recognize.
Consequences of repression
The need for massive repression in childhood gives rise to asthenia
, or, as it is called today -
chronic fatigue syndrome
- because it takes a lot of mental energy to keep
the repressed affect
in
a depressed state
.
On the other hand, it the Id
that is the source of psychic energy,
vitality
- the more instinctive impulses from
the Id
, the more apathetic and depressed a person becomes (see
Economic model of depression
).
But this is not the only consequence of repression
– another disaster is
the formation of a symptom
, which is called
neurosis
.
As mentioned above,
only
an idea
(memory) associated with
an intrapsychic conflict
repressed ; it is this that is reliably blocked in the unconscious.
And the affect
associated with this
intrapsychic conflict
becomes
free
.
“A symptom is a sign and a replacement for the satisfaction of an instinct that has not taken place, the result of a process of repression. Repression comes from the Ego, which sometimes, on behalf of the Super-Ego, does not allow the manifestation of the drive excited in the Id. Through repression, the Ego achieves that the representation, which was the bearer of an unacceptable mental movement, does not become conscious. Analysis often shows that this representation has been preserved as an unconscious formation.” (Freud. “Inhibition, symptom, anxiety”)
Neurosis is a consequence of unsuccessful repression
significant experiences in childhood, and depression is a consequence of
successful repression
(for more information about depression, see
Depression: causes from the point of view of psychoanalysis
).
An example of repression and the development of neurosis in childhood
Freud's phenomenon of repression
associated, first of all, with
an instinctive sexual impulse
(attraction), which, when achieving the goal, was supposed to bring pleasure, but delivers an unpleasant feeling.
Repression
occurs when
displeasure becomes more powerful than the pleasure from satisfaction.
First of all, the phenomenon of repression
Freud is associated with the drama
of the Oedipus complex
.
As an example, Freud cites the case of little Hans
(a boy of five):
“This father stood across his path to his mother. In the presence of his father, he could not sleep with his mother, and when his mother wanted to take Hans to bed, his father started screaming. Hans had to experience how good it is when his father is away, and his desire to eliminate his father was completely justified.” (Freud. “Analysis of the Phobia of a Five-Year-Old Boy”)
That is, by that power
, which caused little Hans
displeasure
and interfered with his claims to his mother - originally his father.
“...during repression, anxiety is not formed again, but is reproduced as an affective state in accordance with an existing memory.” (Freud. “Inhibition, symptom, anxiety”)
Naturally, little Hans grew in hatred towards his father, to the point of wishing him to die (but this does not mean that he understood what death was). Aggression towards his father naturally aroused in the boy a reactive fear of retaliation from a stronger rival. Moreover, this intrapsychic conflict
complicated by the fact that
the boy loved his father and really needed him
(see
Ambivalence
).
It’s better not to feel these soul-tearing contradictions!
Unable to withstand such tension, the psyche forms a process that radically eliminates the problem -
it displaces
conflicting ideas and associated feelings (affects) from consciousness.
Once Hans saw his friend, while playing horses, trip over a stone and bleed. Also, Hans once saw a horse fall in the street, it was lying and twitching its legs, and little Hans thought that it was dying.
“The drive to be repressed is a hostile impulse against the father. Analysis gives us evidence of this by revealing the origin of the idea of the biting horse. Hans saw how a horse fell, and how a friend with whom he was playing horses fell and injured himself. We have the right to assume that Hans wants his father to fall and break himself, like a horse and like a friend. The connection with the departure from home, which Hans saw, suggests that the desire to eliminate his father also found a less timid expression. But such a desire is equivalent to the intention to personally eliminate the father, the desire to kill contained in the Oedipus complex.” (Freud. “Inhibition, symptom, anxiety”)
Father often played horse games with Hans, so the horse turned out to be a successful new object, replacing
father - one might say the horse became
a scapegoat
.
Hans repressed
his anger at his father and the fear of retribution associated with this anger.
The affects of anger and fear turned out to be free
- not associated with the father figure.
The horse that fell in front of Hans did not die, but Hans thought that it died because he wanted it, displacing
his anger from his father to the horse.
Along with this shift in anger towards the horse, the hostile expectations towards him from his father, which Hans had previously experienced when his father raised a cry,
.
Hans soon developed a phobia
: He began to fear that the horse would bite him.
But as a result of the development of the phobia, Hans received certain benefits
:
Primary benefit of the disease
Hans no longer felt the soul-rending conflict of hating his father, whom he loved very much at the same time - all his attention now shifted to his fear of horses, and this did not cause an internal conflict: Hans still loved his father, but was only afraid of horses.
“If little Hans, who is in love with his mother, began to show anxiety in front of his father, then we would not have the right to attribute to him a neurosis or a phobia. We would be dealing with a completely understandable affective reaction. This reaction turns into neurosis thanks to only one trait - replacing the father with a horse. This shift constitutes, therefore, what has the right to be called a symptom ." (ibid.)
Secondary benefit from illness
Firstly
, because Hans was afraid of horses - he was now afraid to go outside, and could spend more time at home with his beloved mother.
Secondly
, in the evenings Hans began to have
seizures
demanding maternal affection, which both mother and father treated with due understanding, because the son was sick.
Reactive education
Reactive education is a defense against forbidden impulses by expressing opposing impulses in behavior and thoughts. If a feeling cannot be expressed (for example, it does not correspond to social norms), it is replaced by the opposite.
For example, an older brother may experience aggression towards a younger brother, because... because of him, his parents began to pay less attention to him. Of course, showing your hatred for your brother is unacceptable, so aggression can unconsciously transform into overly active care.
Or a more banal example: a boy who pulls the pigtail of a girl he likes.
Repressing Trauma
Freud originally had the idea that neurosis developed as a result of trauma
in childhood, primarily as a result of
sexual seduction
.
Freud heard many revelations from his hysterical patients about seduction by their fathers or other relatives - so much that he doubted that it was all true. As a result, Freud also doubted the theory of trauma
and came to the conclusion that his patients themselves had a sexual desire towards their caregivers, which they embodied in a fantasy, but because these fantasies caused anxiety and shame, they were
repressed
, and It was only through analysis that we remembered them as real memories from childhood. (Perhaps this was exactly the case; see more about this here.)
“The mention of protection from irritations immediately brings to mind that repressions arise in two different situations, namely: when an unacceptable attraction is awakened due to external
perception and when it arises
from within
without this kind of provocation from without.” (Freud. “Inhibition, symptom, anxiety”)
Freud used the concept of repression
, especially when it came to sexual or aggressive desires that cause anxiety.
Later, when Freud spoke about mental experiences trying to penetrate consciousness from the unconscious
, he meant precisely
internal experiences
, one might say,
isolated from reality
, and not mental experiences
of real traumas
.
In his fundamental work “Inhibition, Symptom, Anxiety,” Freud introduced the concept of signal anxiety
, meaning precisely the dangers that threaten from within, from
the Id
.
Today psychologists and psychoanalysts use the term repression
and in the case of painful memories and experiences associated with
childhood
trauma For example, a patient assures the psychoanalyst that his childhood was ordinary, there was nothing remarkable about it, and in the process of analysis details are remembered that it would be better to forget
.
If we look closely at the history of the development of little Hans' phobia, we will see that it had a traumatic
origin:
In the presence of his father, he could not sleep with his mother, and when
the mother wanted to take Hans to bed,
the father started screaming
.
It is a very controversial question to what extent a child can be allowed to “infiltrate” the parents’ bedroom. Obviously, a mother should not replace her husband with a son, otherwise it will be an easy Oedipal victory
will deprive the boy of the incentive to develop (see
Oedipus complex in boys
).
But if, in the struggle for oedipal advantage, the father raises a cry
of neurosis
in the boy
is quite likely Especially if a mother seduces her son when she herself wants to take him to bed. A seductive mother
and
a menacing but loving father
cause a soul-tearing
conflict
, which naturally leads to neurosis (as in Freud’s own childhood story, see
Oedipus complex: a view of parents
).
What does the displacement depend on?
Defense mechanisms are very common and are usually a normal aspect of daily functioning. Repression as a defense helps us channel emotions and impulses that may be considered inappropriate or harmful into healthier, safer, or more productive outlets.
When used correctly, defense mechanisms such as repression protect us from negative feelings, help minimize frustration, protect our self-esteem and manage our stress levels.
But defense mechanisms such as repression can also be unhelpful when people rely on them too much or when they lead to problematic behavior and interactions with others.
Excessive use of defense mechanisms has been associated with psychological disorders and impairments in normal functioning.
Repression is a way to redirect feelings, but it can also cause harm. There are several factors that influence how and when displacement occurs.
- Age
Young children express their feelings more directly. Therefore, they are more likely to express their negative emotions towards the original target (regardless of the appropriateness of the response).
For example: a 4-year-old child, when he is unhappy, will most likely simply yell at his parent. A 14-year-old child may replace his disappointment in his parent with a quarrel with his younger brother. Children learn to cope with unpleasant feelings.
- Intensity
Severely upset feelings may lead to greater expression of emotion towards the substitute target. An inappropriate urge (such as wanting to hit someone) may be expressed as an emotional outburst (such as yelling at a spouse).
- Frequency
Most people have experienced taking out their negative emotions on a secondary goal. Although repression is a normal response, it can develop into inappropriate or abusive behavior.
Relying on repression as a defense mechanism to cope with all your emotional disturbances will be futile and may cause harm.
Repression as a psychological defense
crowding out
in psychoanalysis it is considered
a psychological defense
.
But with affect suppressed as a result of repression, not everything is so simple. After the suppression
of affect and its
splitting off
, the fate of this affect can be different.
Free affect can be encapsulated
,
somatized
,
displaced
,
projected
identification with the aggressor
or one of the other processes
of psychological defenses
can occur , and ultimately
a symptom can be formed
(as in little Hans).
In this case, only one affect is rarely repressed; more often it is a complex
of affects (like little Hans – hatred and fear).
Thus, repression
should not be considered as
a separate defense
- this is only the first stage of a complex mental process, as a result of which other
psychological defenses
,
a symptom
, or, in the case of successful repression of strong experiences,
depression
.
Displacement difference
from
isolation
is that in the case of
repression
, the representation associated with affect is forgotten, and in the case of
isolation
, it is remembered, but is deprived of the acuteness of experience associated with it.
How to Know if You Have Repressed Memories
It is difficult to diagnose repression on your own. There are several forms of behavior that indirectly indicate that you have problems with suppressing emotions:
- you don’t know how to talk about your feelings;
- you are distracted by other things so as not to think about what is bothering you,
- you think that it is indecent to openly demonstrate your feelings;
Photo by Min An: Pexels
- avoid intimate relationships;
- you have difficulty concentrating, you cannot focus on something specific, you “have your head in the clouds”;
- you have strange dreams and nightmares;
- you feel embarrassed when other people, even those closest to you, show emotions in your direction;
- you constantly feel bad and cannot determine the nature of this feeling.
If any of these problems bother you, do not delay visiting a psychologist. Recovering repressed memories produces a positive effect if it occurs under the supervision of a specialist, otherwise negative emotions can worsen the situation even further.
Psychoanalytic treatment of neurosis
As noted above, suppressed as a result of repression
affect becomes
free
.
“...repression mechanisms have at least one thing in common - the removal of bound energy
." (Freud. “Repression”)
This free affect
and causes suffering, turning into
a symptom
, causing
depression
or otherwise annoying, transforming through
psychological defenses
.
“...it is not true that repression removes from consciousness all derivatives [derivatives] of what was initially repressed. Access to consciousness turns out to be completely free for them if, due to distortion or due to the large number of connecting links between them, they have sufficiently moved away from the main mental idea, primarily associated with drive. Using psychoanalytic technique, we constantly evoke in the patient such derivative products of the repressed, which can pass through the censorship of his consciousness either due to their distortion or distance from the primary repressed idea.” (ibid.)
It is thanks to the use of free technology
associations, the psychoanalyst can get to the repressed representation and the associated affect.
The task of psychoanalysis
is to reconnect
affect
with its representation and help the patient to experience this affect.
Thanks to such elaboration
, affect loses its sharpness, the representation turns into “just” a memory (narrative), the symptom disappears, depression weakens (see
Elaboration and reconstruction in the case of treatment of depression
).
TOP
Split
Splitting refers to the transition to black and white thinking, thinking in terms of “good” or “bad” and devoid of any uncertainties.
Actually, this protective mechanism is aimed at getting rid of uncertainties. Our experience is contradictory, and it is difficult for us to bring it into a unified whole.
Often they resort to splitting in order to characterize themselves as a good person. The formulation “I have both good and bad qualities, so I can’t definitely be called either bad or good” suits few people. But if we reduce everything to two possible options, we have the right to call ourselves good.
Cleavage is also used to characterize social groups. Representatives of the same social group differ from each other, but it is more convenient for us to endow them all with the same set of qualities.
Regression
Regression is the process of adaptation to a situation when a person unconsciously resorts to forms of behavior characteristic of earlier stages of development, which, as it seems to him, guarantee protection and safety.
An example would be a girl driving for the first time. In a stressful situation, she may get scared, drop the steering wheel and close her eyes - this is a childish behavior that she unconsciously resorts to due to a strong feeling of anxiety.
Sublimation
Sublimation is the redirection of impulses to socially acceptable activities. The personality does not get rid of the unwanted impulse, but directs it towards what is considered acceptable, for example, creativity.
For example, a person with sadistic desires may practice surgery.
4brain has a separate material from which you can learn much more about sublimation and its impact on life. You can get acquainted with him by following the link.
Compensation (overcompensation)
With this type of defense, a person compensates for dissatisfaction with something in another area.
For example, a physically weak boy develops intellectually and asserts himself through victories at the Olympiads. Or a person who cannot improve his personal life compensates for this with luxury goods and money.
Overcompensation is the excessive development of what causes worries. For example, a shy person becomes hypersocial. An insecure girl behaves provocatively and dresses revealingly.
Reversion
Reversion is a psychological defense expressed in replaying a life scenario with a change in the places of subject and object in it. This mechanism is based on the principles of two others: identification and projection.
For example, a person does not have enough care for him, so he himself begins to care about someone and identify himself with this someone. Often it is this mechanism that underlies altruism.
Try to analyze your life experience and find in it a manifestation of the described protective mechanisms of the psyche. Which of them do you personally resort to? Will you be able to use the knowledge you gain to improve your life?
We wish you success!
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- Personal authenticity: what it means to be yourself
- Manipulative Tactics of Toxic People
- Behavioral mechanisms
- Spanish shame: what is it and what is the meaning?
- Mechanisms of escape from freedom: theses of Erich Fromm
- Defense mechanisms of the psyche and psychodiagnostics “Life Style Index”
- Halo effect
- Social perception
- Self-control and how to develop it
- Guilt
Key words:1Self-knowledge
