Repression - Defence Mechanism

Repression is one of the common forms of defence mechanisms. The ego pushes down painful memories deep into the subconscious or certain unapproved desires are pushed down. The conscious mind is not aware of this but however, what has been repressed stays alive deep within and spurts out as bottled up emotions. Repression is also sometimes called as motivated forgetting. Some of the classical examples of repression are - sexual urge felt by a man towards an elderly female is quickly pushed down; an abused child though does not remember the painful abusive days has suppressed the painful memories deep down whereas at a later stages of adulthood the individual will start facing problems in establishing relationships. Unless and until the unconscious memory that has been repressed is brought out the problem faced by the individual in establishing relationships will not be rectified.