the return of the repressed

THE RETURN OF THE REPRESSED

"Freud coined the term "return of the repressed" to explain the existence of neurotic symptoms. He theorized that an unconscious thought/feeling (Id derived) would constantly press for access to the executive fictions of the mind in order to be discharged. The Ego would be on constant alert to prevent the direct expression of the forbidden idea but the idea would find a disguise and surface as a symptom.

For an example, consider an only child whose parents are having a second baby. First born children live in a special world in which they are the center of their parents' universe. Those who are fortunate enough to have a younger sibling must negotiate the loss of their special position and the difficult emotions that are stirred up by the demotion. Typically, there is a mix of love, excitement, and trepidation at the arrival of the new baby; when the child realizes the newcomer is going to get much of the attention that used to be all his, anger at the interloper ensues. The child then learns that open expressions of hostility are not met with approval by his parents. The anger goes underground and eventually becomes unconscious. Often, as part of that process, the child professes his overwhelming love for the baby (a defense known as "reaction formation" is involved); the unconscious anger toward the baby then reveals itself in the child's attempts to "love it to death." Wise parents do not leave 3 year olds alone with infants. Eventually, the child manages to find ways to deal with his anger in acceptable ways and ideally learns that his love for his sibling outweighs his childhood resentment.

In cases where the growing child is never able to resolve the conflict between his anger and attendant wishes to do away with his sibling and his guilt and shame over such terrible and unacceptable feelings, the anger remains in the unconscious mind, forever looking for ways to express itself. "

In horror films, the 'return of the repressed' is a common theme. It's the idea that a bad memory or experience has been repressed for many years in the unconcious mind and suddenly it is back to cause havoc. For example, in Halloween the young boy kills his sister when he is very young, this is then repressed in his mind for years until one day when he is grown up it comes back and he starts killing people again. Freud had a theory that people have bad experiences repressed in their unconcious mind that they are unaware of, but it will come out eventually. For example, when you see something that you're afraid of but you're not quite sure why.