Every person, at one time or another in his life, is faced with a situation that shocks, frightens him or causes him to experience severe pain. Memories of this can be so unpleasant that the psyche throws them deep into the subconscious, intending to deal with them at another, more appropriate time. This psychological process is called repression, also known as motivated forgetting or dissociative amnesia.
There is heated debate among those who study and practice psychology about repressed memories. Can they really be restored, and how can they not be made worse?
In this article:
What is repression and how does it work Examples of psychological repression Repression of memories: good or bad How to know that you have repressed memories
What is preemption and how does it work?
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Repression is a psychological defense mechanism in which unpleasant thoughts, negative emotions, or traumatic memories are blocked and pushed out of the conscious mind and into the subconscious.
Suppressed processes do not disappear, but continue to accumulate, but most often, a person is not even aware of their existence, while they have a huge impact on everyday life.
For example, a friend went on vacation and asked you to look after her flowers.
Considering yourself a very responsible person, you are sincerely perplexed: why have you already forgotten about the request several times? This may be a signal from the subconscious: something in the past makes you avoid these actions. Perhaps it's your ex-boyfriend who showered you with flowers, trying to beg forgiveness for cheating.
Sigmund Freud was the first to develop the concept of repression, based on the unconscious blocking of impulses. His goal was to help his patients recall repressed memories, which he believed were the cause of mental suffering and unwanted behavior.
According to the father of psychoanalysis, the main function of repression is to avoid pain. It consists of two interconnected phases:
Repression (repression) - psychological defense
- Primary repression is a mechanism that blocks thoughts, images and feelings caused by an event. Its task is to prevent awareness of negative experiences;
- Secondary repression is the rejection of painful memories when they are reminded of by another event that is somewhat similar to the original one.
On the other hand, repression of memories often occurs because the expression of certain emotions may be perceived by society as unacceptable behavior. For example, sadness, fear or resentment are still considered signs of weakness in men, and anger is absolutely unacceptable for women.
Modern psychologists believe that repression in the classical sense occurs very rarely. As a rule, a person immediately reacts to a stimulus. It cannot be learned; it is an unconscious process. The father of psychoanalysis argued that absolutely any repression occurs at a young age, and all subsequent years only accumulate past experience, forcing a person to struggle with forbidden desires and internal conflicts.
This explains the origin of some phobias. A huge number of fears arise from the suppression of childhood experiences, because emotions do not disappear anywhere. They can come in different forms and affect mental and physical health, causing anxiety and depression. Therefore, it is very important to contact a specialist in time.
When the problems start
Repression creates problems when a person’s psyche is depleted by illness, substance use, or too much stress created by defenses.
Repression then only temporarily dulls anxiety, but the situation in which a person experiences it does not disappear or change. Repression does not allow you to adequately assess what is happening, yourself, and other people.
Protection erases the content from memory, but not the event itself. For a short time a person feels calm, but his fear remains in the unconscious, from there it directs reactions.
Methods for eliminating repressions
Eliminating repression as a psychological defense is completely impossible and not necessary. It is necessary to preserve the psyche from the abundance of painful and relevant information. But, if repression provokes disturbances, becomes the cause of neurosis or more severe conditions, then the help of a specialist is required.
You can get rid of repression, which causes problems, by working with a psychologist or psychotherapist.
The specialist plays the role of a mirror that reflects all the client’s emotions, thoughts, pains and joys - something that the person himself cannot notice.
To facilitate access to information hidden in the unconscious, various approaches are used. The method of free association used by psychoanalysts works very effectively, as well as projective methods - art therapy, metaphorical associative cards.
In the process of working with the unconscious, a person manages to work through repressed desires and grievances (against parents), build the most complete picture of himself, his weaknesses and strengths, understand his limitations and their origin, and form a new, more relevant self-concept.
Examples of psychological repression
- A person may not remember childhood abuse, but traumatic experiences are not easy to shake off.
In adulthood, this is fraught with difficulties in building relationships with the opposite sex, mistrust and anxiety.
- Of course, one of the most striking examples is childbirth.
It would seem that a painful and long process should once and for all discourage the desire to happily be fruitful and multiply. But when the woman ends up in the maternity hospital again, she is sincerely surprised: is it really that painful? Because the memories were repressed from consciousness, otherwise she would never have decided to go through all the circles of hell again.
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- Fear of animals and insects also has an unconscious nature.
A dog bite that doesn't even leave a mark on your body can fill you with lifelong terror, causing you to panic at the sight of an ordinary mongrel running past on his business.
- You've probably heard the expression "Freudian slip."
Psychologists are convinced that in this way suppressed thoughts and feelings are trying to give a signal. What's so incredible about accidentally naming your boyfriend after a colleague? But Freud was of the opinion that this could be a sign that you were repressing your sexual desires towards him. Now will you look differently at the handsome IT specialist from the next department?
Introjection
Introjection is the inclusion by a person of attitudes, opinions, etc. perceived from other people. into your inner world.
Introjection plays several roles:
- Adaptive. Young children “absorb” the views and attitudes of their parents.
- Protective. For example, young children are in fact defenseless, but due to the appropriation of the qualities of their parents, they do not recognize themselves as such. In adults, this process takes the form of identification, which we will discuss separately.
- Destructive. This defense mechanism causes a person to perceive something external as something internal. Consequently, the loss of this external is felt as the loss of something internal.
Introjection also underlies the famous Stockholm syndrome.
Repression of memories: good or bad
In the short term, repression can be considered the body's natural defense against negative emotions. However, if you bury negative memories too deeply and do not work through them on your own or with a psychologist, in the future this is fraught with neuroses and increased anxiety.
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Mental health problems can manifest as psychosomatic pain, allergies, chronic fatigue and insomnia. Research shows that suppressing emotions and feelings causes a devastating blow to the immune system.
Among supporters of the use of therapy against repressed emotions, there is debate about the reliability of the treatment results. The main argument is that memories can be distorted both by the person seeking help and by an insufficiently experienced psychotherapist. Opponents of therapy are convinced that it is necessary to eliminate the consequences, and not endlessly delve into the past.
However, experts agree on one thing: violence and trauma that occur during periods of emotional intelligence development cause physical changes in the human brain that can later develop into mental disorders.
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.
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;
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- 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.
Unintended consequences
Repression can cause an unintended chain reaction. Repressed aggression, for example, can become cyclical.
For example, imagine an employee who is angry with his boss. He takes out his anger on his wife when they return home. Now they themselves are angry, spouses can be irritable with their children, and they, in turn, can take out their frustration on each other.
Repressed interpersonal aggression can also lead to prejudice against certain social groups.
For example, some scholars argue that the hostility that Germans felt toward the Jewish people after World War I may have been an example of repressed feelings of anger over the economic consequences of the war.
Instead of directing their collective anger at their own actions or their own government, people redirected their anger toward a group of people they perceived as less dangerous targets.
This phenomenon is also known as scapegoating.
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.
Self-restraint
When a person realizes that his achievements are inferior to the achievements of other people, he resorts to the described mechanism and stops his activities - he limits himself. Thus, self-restraint is an escape from difficulties towards frustration.
Anna Freud gives the following example of self-restraint:
She and the little boy were drawing together. The boy was doing this with enthusiasm, but then he looked at how Anna was drawing and put the pencils aside.
Losing is unpleasant. And to avoid losing, people refuse to compete at all.
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.
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.
Identification with the aggressor
What is the operating principle of this mechanism? To stop being afraid of someone, a person becomes just like that someone.
Let's look at it with an example. The child is systematically beaten by his father. Screams, assault, threats - all this is frightening. To stop being afraid, the child himself becomes aggressive. It is possible that next time the father will be beaten.
Another example. Identification with the aggressor is an essential element of Stockholm syndrome. In order not to go crazy under conditions of forced communication with the tyrant, the hostage begins to identify himself with him. This helps to accept the aggressor, which reduces fear. And it also seems to the hostage that the criminal will not touch “his own.”
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
- Behavioral mechanisms
- Spanish shame: what is it and what is the meaning?
- Halo effect
- Personal authenticity: what it means to be yourself
- Mechanisms of escape from freedom: theses of Erich Fromm
- Manipulative Tactics of Toxic People
- Guilt
- Social perception
- Defense mechanisms of the psyche and psychodiagnostics “Life Style Index”
- Self-control and how to develop it
Key words:1Self-knowledge
Notes
- Freud Z.
Repression (1915) //
Freud Z.
Psychology of the unconscious. - M.: Firma STD, 2006. - P. 79-110. - Janet Malcolm.
Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession. - 1988. - P. 15. - Freud Z.
Five lectures on psychoanalysis. - Penguin, 1995. - pp. 28-29. - Freud Z.
On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement. — 1914. - (English). archive.org. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
- (English). lawbooks.news. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
- Freud S.
On Metapsychology. — P. 147, 184. - Freud S.
On Psychopathology. — P. 245. - Freud S.
On Psychopathology. — P. 245. - Freud S.
Five Lectures. - P. 35. - Fenichel O. (English)Russian.
The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis. - London, 1946. - P. 153. - Lacan J.
The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis. - 1994. - P. 176, 236, 251. - R. Skynner/J.
Cleese. Families and how to survive them. - 1993. - P. 36-37.
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.
Substitution
This is the venting on a random person of those emotions, feelings, thoughts that the subject experiences in relation to another person.
In this case, the first person is not physically or psychologically available, but the second person is always at hand.
Example. An employee dreams of hitting his boss or at least yelling at him. But he cannot do this for fear of punishment or dismissal. Substitution turns on and he splashes out aggression on his wife and children.
Energy can be directed not only to people, but also to objects.
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.
