Repression is a mechanism by which a person expels from his consciousness thoughts, feelings or desires that he considers unacceptable, that is, everything that does not tolerate feeling, thought or desire.
We can understand better with an example. Suppose there is someone who has a stable partner with whom he feels happy, however, suddenly, this person is attracted to another and perceives him as a threat, so he decides to expel this idea from his consciousness, with the intention that it will never happen.
- So far so good.
- The problem is that there is a psychic law: the repressed does not disappear.
- But still works unconsciously.
- In fact.
- The repressed contents.
- Having been repressed.
- Acquire an unusual force.
Everything that has been repressed returns. Desire is not eliminated by removing it from consciousness, it takes different forms to manifest itself over and over again. Repression has its own language and this is its main expression.
At bedtime, consciousness ceases to be that sentinel who constantly tells you what thoughts and feelings you must admit and which you should not, during sleep censorship rises and the unconscious is fully expressed.
Sometimes this repressed content is exposed directly while we sleep, for example, the person dreams that he did not let the person who attracted her and that he is in a relationship with her.
If the repressed is more complex or refers to content that is really intolerable to the person, the dream will also tend to have a more enigmatic composition, literal scenes will no longer appear, but each element will appear as a symbol or concealment. They are dreams that do not seem to have a foot or a head, in many other cases we do not even remember what we dream.
The repressed comes not only through dreams, but also through the concrete actions we perform in our daily lives.
Going back to the example mentioned above, an imperfect act would be, for example, that instead of dialing the couple’s phone number, the person would inadvertently call the person who arouses your attraction.
Does everything we do, inadvertently? corresponds to the concept of a failed act or a fulfilled act, a form of repression. I failed because it wasn’t what we consciously wanted. I got here because, basically, that’s what we wanted to do.
They operate very similarly to irregularities, but only appear in the language field. These are unintentional speech (lack of language) or writing errors (lack of writing). I remember what happened to me: did I want to write to a girl?You’re beautiful, but I accidentally omitted a letter and ended up writing?Is that her?
There are also gaps in memory, in which we momentarily forget something that we had no reason to forget, for example, the name of the boss, or even a son.
Neurotic symptoms are another type of repression, they are more or less absurd actions that we perform in our day to day, or unexplained situations that survive without knowing why, what they are expressing is that desire that we suppress and try to manifest.
For example: a person who constantly feels he is going to light a fire and ends up confirming several times that the stove is off, or someone who examines three or four times left the door closed because he appears to have left it open.
There are also cases like that of an employee who has been abused by his boss and wants to respond, but does not have the courage, then he may end up losing his voice or begin to feel sore throat.
Jokes express what is suppressed not on an individual level, but on a social level. This form of repression reveals feelings of rejection, defies taboos, and strips away collective desires.
There are many xenophobic jokes, sexists, etc. that allow us to express feelings or ideas that, if said otherwise, would be censored socially. At this point, for many people, there is the grace of many of them.
Images courtesy of Daria Petrilli.