MAY 2001, VOLUME 29, NUMBER 1, Abstract 2
Repression: R.I.P.
John H. Court, Former Professor of Psychology, Graduate School of Psychology, Pasadena
Pamela C. Court, Senior Counsellor
The concept of repression has had a central place in theorising about the unconscious, the nature of memory, and the ways in which hypnosis may work. This Freudian mechanism has more recently come under attack in many quarters, together with the more general understanding of the unconscious. Reappraisal of its place became urgent as a result of the upsurge of attention to recovered memories in therapy, especially in hypnosis, followed by the research that cast serious doubts on the explanatory power of repression as a hypothesised mechanism. Dissociation has often been misleadingly treated as a near synonym for repression, yet for those who practise hypnosis, a clear distinction is needed. The archaic views of the unconscious, memory processes, and childhood sexuality derived from Freud deserve a quiet resting place.