repression

Part of Freud’s vocabulary to describe what humans cannot see

Repression is the act of blocking painful/exciting/intense memories out of the conscious mind and keeping them in unconscious.

Repression occurs because of incompatibility of the ego of the patient with desire. Repression can create neuroses.

Dreams are based on repressed desires (or memories).

Repression is not simply sexual. Primitive man represses objects in his physical environment (“taboos”). Civilized man represses internally (guilt/bad conscience), especially his aggression which Freud believes is the greatest impediment to progress. Guilt will take its toll and then the individual will direct it outward (on “communists” “Jews” etc.); it may end in aggression as a cleansing mechanism.