Primal Repression and Other States of Mind

Repression: A Critical Assessment and Update of Freud's 1915 Paper

The concept of repression has been relegated to the periphery in current psychoanalytic theorizing. This is in part due to a reflexive and ill-informed avoidance of Freudian metapsychology, and in part due to preoccupation with 'primitive' and 'deeper' states of mind, a perspective that presumes that repression operates exclusively in 'higher level' or 'neurotic' forms of psychopathology. A careful scrutiny of psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice does not uphold such compartmentalization. Repression is ubiquitous in mental life. It contributes to normality (e.g., onset of latency), undergirds the 'psychopathology of everyday life' (e.g., parapraxes), exists alongside splitting in severe character disorders (e.g., borderline patients "forgetting" their appointments) and, by permitting a modified return of exiled mental contents, gives birth to neurotic symptoms as well as creative imagination. Taking Freud's seminal discourse on repression (in: Repression. Standard Edition, vol 14. Hogarth, London, pp 141-158 1915a) as its starting point, this paper elucidates the complex, nuanced, and pervasive nature of this defense. It deconstructs Freud's unitary concept of repression into four implicit binaries and updates his proposals in the light of contemporary psychoanalytic theory. The paper offers clear guidelines for clinical applications of these ideas.

Realism, Self-Deception and the Logical Paradox of Repression

Historically, repression has been considered a cornerstone of psychoanalytic theory. However, explaining how the ego maintains repression without knowing the repressed appears to create a logical paradox of knowing in order not to know. Maze and Henry's realist analysis of the problem provides an important new direction for framing possible solutions. However, their proposed explanation in terms of `affective blocking' is found to be limited with respect to explaining important features of repression, such as the clinical phenomenon of resistance. Alternatively, the present thesis proposes that a solution can be provided in terms of strong partitioning and neural inhibition. The resolution of the paradox hinges upon the recognition that repression inhibits knowledge of knowing the repressed. Implications of this position for understanding self-deception are discussed.

Factors associated with long-term depressive symptoms of sexual assault victims

Of 63 sexual assault victims who were a mean 7.9 years postevent, almost two thirds (60%, n = 38) demonstrated some degree of depression. Over half (56%, n = 35) the sample also reported a history of childhood sexual abuse. Three factors had a significant positive association with higher levels of depression: nondisclosure of the assault to significant others due to concerns about stigma; the presence of children living with the victim; and a civil lawsuit pending. One factor, currently being sexually active, had a significant negative association with depression. Results are discussed from the perspective of depression, a common pathway by which unresolved sexual trauma is expressed.