Psychologically, repression is when an individual attempts to stifle one’s own desires and motivations towards pleasurable things. This act mainly derived from a fear that an outside force will prevent an individual’s desire from coming to pass; in an attempt to prevent suffering the desire is eliminated from one’s consciousness.
I’ve recently noticed that in a lot of my recent work there has been a subtle release of various memories of events from my past that I have not thought about in a very long time. Repressing memories as a means of self preservation, a defense mechanism, is not an uncommon occurrence in families today. I know many families, including my own, who have suffered from an uncommon and/or tragic event that quite nearly destroys the family structure then, as quickly as it happened, the event is swept under the rug. While this is not “true” repression, it is a stifling of memory in fear of a negative circumstance continuing in one’s life.
"...horrific experiences are stored but 'forgotten.' Some of these memories later return in flashbacks...The body keeps store, but the brain doesn't always remember."-B.A. Van der Kolk
Robinson, B.A. "Quotations about repressed memories and recovered memory therapy (RMT)." Religious Tolerance.org. N.p., 14 Feb 2009. Web. 23 Sep 2010. <http://www.religioustolerance.org/rmtquote.htm>.
"We obtain our concept of the unconscious, therefore, from the theory of repression… We see, however that we have two kinds of unconscious — that which is latent but capable of becoming conscious, and that which is repressed and not capable of becoming conscious in the ordinary way"-Sigmund Freud
"Sigmund Freud - Wikiquote." Wikiquote. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sep 2010. <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud>
Taken From: http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/images/Great%20Repression%20Human%20Brain%20in%20Cage.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment