Repression is a psychological defense mechanism in which people unconsciously block uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, or impulses from their awareness. Repressed thoughts don’t just disappear, however – they continue to exist in the unconscious mind.
What is repression?
Repression is considered one of the “primitive defense mechanisms” because it is one of the earliest ways we learn to cope with pain or trauma. Repression starts in childhood as a normal part of development. Children will block out traumatic events, such as abuse, in order to survive and function in their daily lives.
As adults, we continue to use repression as a defense mechanism. When certain thoughts, feelings, urges, or memories are too anxiety-provoking, we “banish” them to our unconscious mind. This helps us avoid the emotional pain and discomfort that the thoughts bring us.
For example, a person who experienced childhood abuse may repress those traumatic memories. A married person who is attracted to someone other than their spouse may repress those feelings. Repression acts as a barrier between the conscious mind and the unacceptable impulses or memories.
Why do we repress thoughts and feelings?
Psychologists believe repression serves an important purpose. When done temporarily and appropriately, it can provide emotional relief in the short term. Repressing thoughts can help people:
- Focus on work, relationships or daily life without being overwhelmed by disturbing thoughts or emotions
- Recover from the initial shock and distress of a traumatic event
- Go about their lives without having to relive painful memories
Of course, repression causes problems when it is overused or done inflexibly over long periods of time. Avoiding negative emotions and memories inhibits a person’s ability to process the issues and resolve internal conflict. Long term repression leads to symptoms like anxiety, depression and difficulties in relationships.
What happens to repressed thoughts?
Repressed thoughts don’t simply disappear. They continue to exist in the unconscious parts of the mind. There is an unresolved psychic tension that persists. Freud compared repressed thoughts to a spring that is compressed under a heavy weight – it is still exerting pressure, but the tension is being contained.
Repressed memories and feelings can leak out in various ways, even though we are not consciously aware of them. They can emerge symbolically in dreams. They may lead a person to act out in various unconscious ways. Common signs that someone is experiencing repressed thoughts or emotions include:
- Experiencing recurrent dreams or nightmares about particular people, places or events
- Feeling strong emotions without knowing why
- Having relationship problems caused by irrational attitudes or behaviors
- Engaging in compulsive behaviors like gambling or excessive drinking
Repressed urges and impulses may also contribute to mental health symptoms like anxiety, depression or obsessive thinking. Maladaptive behaviors can develop as a way to express the tension caused by repression.
Can repressed memories resurface?
Repressed memories don’t simply disappear – they remain dormant in the unconscious mind. They can reemerge into consciousness under certain circumstances.
Triggers that may bring repressed memories to the surface include:
- Being in therapy and discussing your feelings, relationships or childhood experiences
- Encountering people, places, words, images or other stimuli associated with forgotten memories
- Experiencing similar emotions or situations to the repressed event
- Undergoing hypnosis or guided meditation designed to uncover lost memories
- Using memory recovery techniques like EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing)
- Being under the influence of alcohol, recreational drugs or medications that lower inhibitions
When repressed content begins to resurface, it can feel quite distressing. People may relive the intensity of traumatic memories or feel overcome by strong emotions that feel irrational given their current situations. It’s best to work with a professional therapist if you begin recalling repressed memories or experiencing unexplained emotions. The therapist can help you gradually process the feelings in a healthy way.
The return of the repressed
Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, emphasized the importance of bringing repressed material to consciousness. He believed neurotic symptoms were caused by buried memories and feelings. To alleviate psychological distress, patients had to confront and work through the repressed content.
Freud used psychoanalysis and dream interpretation to help patients retrieve repressed memories from the unconscious. By discussing suppressed thoughts and urges openly, patients could understand themselves better at a conscious level. This insight alone helped provide relief of symptoms.
Modern psychology takes a more nuanced view. Some repressed memories – particularly of actual trauma – can be recovered and worked through. However, there are also limitations and risks involved with recovering supposedly repressed memories, especially through suggestive memory recovery techniques. False memories may inadvertently be created.
Nonetheless, exploring repressed feelings with a therapist can provide insight into behaviors, emotions and relationships. While repressed memories might not surface verbatim, looking at the themes and patterns in one’s life often reveals connections to past experiences.
Can you repress memories of specific events?
There has been considerable debate in psychology around repressed memories of trauma. Some psychologists believe that people can completely repress memories of traumatic events they have experienced, such as childhood sexual abuse. When these forgotten memories are later retrieved, they surface with great detail and accuracy.
Other experts are more skeptical about these claims. Research shows that people’s normal memory processes make it difficult or unlikely to repress entire specific events. Memories of trauma may be forgotten temporarily but are not wiped completely from the mind. There are also risks of “recovering” false memories through suggestion.
Currently, many psychologists believe that:
- It is possible to forget some or even many details of a disturbing event. However, complete amnesia for the entire event is less likely.
- Therapists should avoid suggestive memory recovery techniques that might produce confabulations or false memories.
- Even when someone does not remember traumatic events, their emotions and behaviors may still reflect the impact of past trauma. Therapeutic focus should be on overcoming the trauma, rather than retrieving all the exact details.
Are repressed thoughts accessible?
Repressed thoughts, urges and memories are not directly accessible to the conscious mind. By definition, repression involves avoiding this distressing content and keeping it locked in the unconscious regions of the psyche.
However, even though repressed material is buried and invisible at first, there remains an undercurrent of tension and energy around it. Freud asserted that repressed content is not truly lost or erased. It continues to exist beneath the surface and subtly influences conscious thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
This is why repressed material can occasionally bubble up in unexpected ways. Someone may suddenly recall a long forgotten memory, or have a dream about content they cannot consciously recall experiencing. Strong emotions or compulsive behaviors may point to unconscious urges. Slips of the tongue may reveal hidden preoccupations.
Therapeutic approaches aim to bring repressed content back into conscious awareness. Hypnosis, dream analysis, free association, talking therapy, EMDR and interpretation of daily behaviors can all help uncover repressed thoughts. The objective is to allow the person to consciously process and integrate the previously avoided material in a healthy manner.
Can repressed memories be recovered?
Repressed memories involve content that was consciously forgotten due to its threatening or disturbing nature. The person buried the thoughts or experiences because recalling them would provoke too much anxiety and distress. Therefore recovering repressed memories requires overcoming the mind’s own defense mechanisms.
Here are some ways repressed memories may bubble to the surface:
- Triggering events – Reminders of the repressed event, such as places, words or sensory triggers can unlock the forgotten memories.
- Dreams – Repressed memories may emerge disguised as recurring images and themes in dreams.
- Altered states – Being under hypnosis, intoxicated or taking certain drugs may allow repressed memories to arise.
- Therapy – Talking about your life and relationships can draw out forgotten memories. EMDR and guided imagery therapies may also access them.
- Emotional release – Highly emotional situations may serve as a catharsis that releases pent-up memories.
However, mental health professionals caution against aggressively hunting down repressed memories, especially of childhood events. Suggestive therapeutic techniques run the risk of creating false memories. It is better to focus on understanding one’s current feelings and behaviors, rather than digging up the past.
Are repressed memories accurate?
The accuracy of repressed memories has been widely debated in psychology. Some argue that repressed memories, when recovered, provide an accurate, authentic account of past events. However, many experts have challenged this view.
Research shows that memory is highly malleable and prone to distortions. When memories are recalled after long periods of time, the details tend to decay or change. Emotion and suggestion can modify old memories. Filling in the gaps results in inaccuracies and false memories.
Factors that can distort recovered memories and produce false recollections include:
- Suggestive questioning that inserts new details
- Hypnosis or guided imagery that generates imaginations
- Pressure to recall events in more detail than was encoded
- Bias and assumptions that alter recall
- Combining bits of different events into one narrative
Rather than taking recovered memories at face value, it is wise to corroborate them against external evidence. This can help verify which aspects are accurate accounts of past events versus merely illusions. But focusing too much on retrieving every detail of past events is often unnecessary and risks confabulation. The therapeutic priority should be making sense of and moving past trauma.
Can you trust recovered memories?
Psychologists debate whether repressed memories that resurface are generally reliable and accurate. Recovered memories have played a controversial role in legal cases and clinical practice.
Views differ on whether to inherently trust recalled repressed memories, or whether skepticism is warranted:
- Trust – Some argue that repressing traumatic memories, like childhood abuse, is a genuine phenomenon. When recovered, the forgotten memories provide true and accurate accounts of actual past events, with great therapeutic benefit.
- Skepticism – Others contend there is little evidence for repressing entire events. Recovered memories are often false memories, shaped by suggestion and bias. This can lead to false accusations or confabulated narratives. It is better to focus simply on overcoming trauma.
Most experts land somewhere in the middle. Salient details of important events cannot be entirely erased, but the fine-grained details often change over time. Rather than taking recovered memories at face value, it is wise to corroborate them against external evidence. Ultimately, the therapeutic priority should be making sense of and moving past trauma, rather than just digging up memories.
Conclusion
In summary, repressed thoughts and memories do not simply vanish or get deleted. They continue to linger in the unconscious mind, subtly influencing behavior and emotions. Repressed content may emerge in disjointed ways through dreams, emotions or compulsive behaviors. Recovery of lost memories can occur through hypnotic regression, psychotherapy techniques or triggering events, but recovered memories have limitations and risks of inaccuracy. While repressing distressing thoughts is a protective defense mechanism, ultimately facing and working through the avoided feelings and memories leads to greater self-knowledge and wellbeing.