The difference between repression and reverse configuration
The notion of repression, a very important principle in psychoanalysis, appeared as a concept in Freud, although Schopenhauer had already mentioned it. But repress what?
The mind according to Freud
With repression, the discovery of the unconscious begins. The theory of repression is not a simple question since it depends on the idea, not always very conscious, that we have of the unconscious, of what is unconscious or even of what happens unconsciously.
In order to understand how repression works, it is therefore necessary to review Sigmund Freud's conception of the mind. For him, the human mind was a bit like an iceberg: the peak that can be seen above the water represents the conscious mind. The part submerged under water but which is still visible, is the preconscious. Most of the iceberg below the waterline is invisible. It is the unconscious. It is the latter that has a very powerful impact on personality and can potentially lead to psychological distress, which can affect behavior even though we may not be aware of what is there.
It was by helping patients uncover their unconscious feelings that Freud began to think there was a process that hid unacceptable thoughts. Repression was the first defense mechanism identified by Freud in 1895 and he believed it to be the most important.
Repression, a defense mechanism?
Repression is pushing back one's own desires, impulses, cravings that cannot become conscious because they are unmentionable, too painful or even reprehensible for the individual or for society. But they will remain in us in an unconscious way. Because not everything is to say, to express, to feel. When a desire tries to become conscious and fails, it is a defense mechanism in the psychoanalytic sense of the word. Repression is the unconscious blocking of unpleasant emotions, impulses, memories and thoughts from the conscious mind.
As Freud explains: "A 'violent rebellion' arose to bar the way to awareness of the offending psychic act. A watchful guardian recognized the offending agent, or unwanted thought, and pointed it out. to censorship". It is not an escape, it is not a condemnation of the drive or the desire but it is the act of keeping at a distance from the conscious. An intermediate solution to try to minimize the feelings of weakness and anxiety.
But finally, why is this thought undesirable? And who recognized it as such and censored it? An undesirable thought is undesirable because it produces deposition, which sets the mechanics in motion, and repression is the consequence of cathexis and countercathexis in different systems.
However, while pushback may be effective initially, it can lead to greater anxiety down the road. Freud argued that repression could lead to psychological distress.
What is the impact of refoulement?
Research has supported the idea that selective forgetting is a way people block awareness of unwanted thoughts or memories. Forgetting, induced by retrieval, occurs when the recall of certain memories leads to the forgetting of other related information. Thus, repeatedly calling up certain memories could lead to other memories becoming less accessible. Traumatic or unwanted memories, for example, can be forgotten by the repeated retrieval of more positive memories.
Freud believed that dreams were a way of peeking into the unconscious, the repressed feelings that can show up in the fears, anxieties and desires we experience in these dreams. Another example of which repressed thoughts and feelings can make themselves known according to Freud: slips of the tongue. These slips of the tongue can be, he says, very revealing, showing what we think or feel about something chosen at an unconscious level. Phobias can also sometimes be an example of how a repressed memory can continue to influence behavior.
The theory of repression criticized
Repression theory is considered a loaded and controversial concept. It has long served as a central idea in psychoanalysis, but there have been a number of critics who have questioned the very validity and even the existence of repression.
The criticism of the philosopher Alain bears precisely on this calling into question of the subject which would be implied by the Freudian theory: Alain criticizes Freud for inventing an "other me" in each of us (a "bad angel", a "diabolical adviser “”) which could serve us to question the responsibility we have on nour actions.
We could, when we want to clear ourselves of one of our actions or its consequences, invoke this "double" to affirm that we did not do anything wrong, or that we could not do otherwise, that in the end this action is not ours... He considers that Freud's theory is not only erroneous but also dangerous, because by contesting the sovereignty that the subject is supposed to have over himself, it opens the way to all forms of flight, it provides an alibi for those who would like to escape their moral responsibility.
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