based on Freud's work "Repression"

The logic of repression placement: between escape and condemnation.

The state that Freud called “repression” is the deprivation of drives of activity, the placement of aspirations and ideas under the protection of the unconscious.

To escape from what is unfolding on the stage of psychic reality at certain moments in life is the desire of any subject, but we cannot escape from ourselves. We call ourselves the authority “I”, which forms an intermediate option for salvation from thoughts - repression.

After all, this is the only way she can avoid, firstly, condemnation of the impulses of attraction from the rational part of herself and, secondly, escape, which, as we know, is possible only in relation to external stimuli.

The essence of repression and the conditions for its occurrence. Satisfaction of drives and the meaning of the motive of displeasure.

Why is a third option between running or explaining necessary? Why does the psyche need a repression mechanism? Protect yourself from unpleasant feelings. Instead of pleasure, when satisfying instincts, pain may arise and we can influence it, including by being mentally distracted.

The essence of repression, thus, comes down to the removal of a certain content of mental activity and ideas from consciousness. Or how else can we say - repression is possible only in the case when we are talking about a split subject, when conscious and unconscious mental life already takes place.

We strive to push away as far as possible what for some reason brings us unpleasant states and displeasure. This motive is the strongest in comparison with the anticipation of satisfying drives. That is, repression becomes most likely if a person is subject to displeasure in his motives, rather than having the prerequisites for satisfying his drives. Unconsciously, of course.

Phases of repression: first repression and post-repression. Relations between the repressed and mental systems.

Freud suggested two phases of repression, during the first the idea is not allowed to reach consciousness and remains unchanged along with the drive associated with it, the second phase refers to ideas and thoughts that are derivative and manifested in the course of associations that have arisen. There is no sequence of processes, no time logic.

"... I can send an unpleasant guest out of my living room or from my front hall, or, having recognized him, not let him in through the threshold of my apartment at all. I only need to add that I must place a watchman at the door so that he constantly guards the door that is closed to the guest, because otherwise the expelled person could unlock it." With this metaphor, Freud shows us the idea that repression is constantly active in its movement towards consciousness and, accordingly, there is an opposing tension to restrain the resulting pressure.

That is, the process of repression is disrupted only in relation to one mental system, consciousness. In the unconscious, repressed ideas can form derivatives and build associations while remaining hidden from the subject.

Representation, the sum of affect and their various fates in the process of repression.

The fate of ideas and affects in the process of repression is connected with the economic component. The amount of energy required to retain ideas and affects of drives in the unconscious or to move away from it increases and decreases accordingly.

Speaking about affects, Freud talks about their transformation from the energy of attraction and the path of this energy is not equal to the path of representation. Attraction can be suppressed, manifest itself as affect or turn into fear, but the idea, when repressed, follows one path - it disappears from consciousness.

Return of the repressed. Symptom formation and replacement education.

Signs of the return of the repressed are substitute formations and symptoms; first they are examined and only after the repression itself. That is, we are interested in failed repression, which generates unpleasant sensations and fear, but if it succeeds, we will never know about it.

Using the examples of three psychoneuroses: anxiety hysteria, conversion hysteria and obsessional neurosis, Freud unpacks the mechanisms of repression, replacement formations and symptom formations.

In the first case, the attraction is forced out of consciousness, the substitute formation of the idea is shifted and the affect turns into fear, a phobia is formed. In the second example, the content of the representation associated with the drive is also completely repressed from consciousness, but here there is the possibility of a complete disappearance of the affect, as a substitute formation and a symptom of simultaneously too strong somatic manifestations. The third option shows a different outcome of repression due to the ambivalence of the nature of the drives: at first, ideas associated with the drive are repressed and affect disappears, but later the repressed returns to consciousness and thus an endless struggle takes place.

“...psychoanalytic experience with transference neuroses leads us to the conclusion that repression is not some inherently existing defense mechanism, that it can arise no earlier than there is a clear division into conscious and unconscious mental activity...”

That is, the subject must be split before having the ability to repress the content of any representation. Something had already happened in his mental life that made the effect of displeasure known to him. In this case, the subject’s mental apparatus will be able to separate the content of incoming ideas into those that can be admitted to the conscious part and those that will be repressed.

“The representation of the drive develops unhindered and more meaningfully if, thanks to repression, it is deprived of conscious influence. It, so to speak, grows in the darkness and finds extreme forms of expression, which, if translated and presented to a neurotic, not only seem alien to him, but also frighten him with the mystification of an extraordinary and dangerous power of attraction. This deceptive power of attraction is the result of its free manifestation in fantasy and damming due to lack of satisfaction. That this latter result is connected with repression indicates where we must look for its true meaning."

Repression is a violation of the connection between the repressed and consciousness, only with this mental system. And even if a subject with obsessional neurosis has an idea that something happened, nevertheless he is not aware of what exactly took place. He is in an eternal struggle of ambivalence of his drives.

“The process of repression cannot be imagined as a one-time phenomenon with a lasting effect, just as something living is killed, which from now on becomes dead; on the contrary, repression requires constant expenditure of energy, without which its result would be called into question, and therefore a new act of repression would be needed.”

The aftereffect mechanism and the lack of time sequence are characteristic of the repression process. The content of the ideas of drives that was repressed once can be brought to consciousness and after some time, under the influence of certain events, is again subject to repression. In other words, repression is individual and mobile.