XPost: alt.philosophy, alt.psychology, sci.psychology.psychotherapy   
   XPost: sci.psychology.misc   
   From: nospam@microsoft.com   
      
   "Immortalist"  wrote in   
   message news:BcKIf.63938$bF.45394@dukeread07...   
   >   
   > "AKA gray asphalt"  wrote   
   > in message   
   > news:7tCIf.39719$JT.26087@fed1read06...   
   >> If yes, then what does it mean?   
   >> If no, then what are 'recovered' memories?   
   >> Was 'repression' a new idea from Freud or did   
   >> he rediscover an old truth ... if you think   
   >> repression is a real phenomena.   
   >>   
   >   
   > Perhaps I may give you a more vivid picture of   
   > repression and of its necessary relation to   
   > resistance, by a rough analogy derived from our   
   > actual situation at the present moment. Let us   
   > suppose that in this lecture-room and among this   
   > audience, whose exemplary quiet and   
   > attentiveness I cannot sufficiently commend,   
   > there is nevertheless someone who is causing a   
   > disturbance and whose ill-mannered laughter,   
   > chattering and shuffling with his feet are   
   > distracting my attention from my task. I have to   
   > announce that I cannot proceed with my lecture;   
   > and thereupon three or four of you who are   
   > strong men stand up and, after a short struggle,   
   > put the interrupter outside the door. So now he   
   > is "repressed," and I can continue my lecture.   
   > But in order that the interruption shall not be   
   > repeated, in case the individual who has been   
   > expelled should try to enter the room once more,   
   > the gentlemen who have put my will into effect   
   > place their chairs up against the door and thus   
   > establish a "resistance" after the repression   
   > has been accomplished. If you will now translate   
   > the two localities concerned into psychical   
   > terms as the "conscious and the "unconscious,"   
   > you will have before you a fairly good picture   
   > of the process of repression.   
   >   
   > ...If you come to think of it, the removal of   
   > the interrupter and the posting of the guardians   
   > at the door may not mean the end of the story.   
   > It may very well be that the individual who has   
   > been expelled, and who has now become embittered   
   > and reckless, will cause us further trouble. It   
   > is true that he is no longer among us; we are   
   > free from his presence, from his insulting   
   > laughter and his sotto voce comments. But in   
   > some respects, nevertheless, the repression has   
   > been unsuccessful; for now he is making an   
   > intolerable exhibition of himself outside the   
   > room, and his shouting and banding on the door   
   > with his fists interfere with my lecture even   
   > more than his bad behavior did before. In these   
   > circumstances we could not fail to be delighted   
   > if our respected president, Dr. Stanley Hall,   
   > should be willing to assume the role of mediator   
   > and peace-maker. He would have a talk with the   
   > unruly person outside and would then come to us   
   > with a request that he should be re-admitted   
   > after all:  he himself would guarantee that the   
   > man would now behave better. On Dr. Hall's   
   > authority we decide to lift the repression, and   
   > peace and quiet are restored. This presents what   
   > is really no bad picture of the physician's task   
   > in the psycho-analytic treatment of the   
   > neuroses.   
   >   
   > --Sigmund Freud   
   ________________________________   
      
   I thought you were expressing an excellent example   
   of repression but wrong, in a sense and incomplete   
   and I was going to ask if it was original. Now   
   that I see it is from Freud ... I'm still going to   
   object. This seems like what I would call   
   "supression" rather than "repression". That we are   
   still aware, upon thinking about it, that the   
   troublesome classmate has be removed, seems to be   
   lot different than what I understand to be   
   'recovered memories' where something happens that   
   is so alien to the individual that they cannot   
   allow themselves to remember that it happened at   
   all. The classmate is not only pushed ouside of   
   the classroom but if someone asks if he ever   
   existed the class will not be able to remember him   
   or the expulsion.   
      
   This is like the girl who saw her father kill   
   someone and later remembered it and the body was   
   found under a concrete slab in the back of the   
   house where she lived, as a child. This seems like   
   something like what might be called dissociative   
   as "Dr. Two Steps" used the tem.   
      
   This is "Silence of the Lambs" kind of stuff. Does   
   anyone remember what the title is derived from?   
      
   ________________________________   
      
   > Suppression may be contrasted with Cognitive   
   > Dissonance which is is the state of tension one   
   > feels after making a decision, taking an action,   
   > or being exposed to some information that is   
   > contrary to a prior attitude (Zimbardo et al.,   
   > 1999, p. 752). The state of tension is   
   > psychologically unpleasant, so something must   
   > change to reduce the dissonance -- usually the   
   > prior attitude.   
   >   
   > When we experience two conflicting ideas we   
   > might adjust one or other belief to fit with the   
   > other. Then "next time" these cognitions arise   
   > we will have "adapted them" by lengthening nerve   
   > fibers and raising or lowering resistences to   
   > chemo/electical flows across synapses.   
   >   
   > Cognitive consistency is the tendency to seek   
   > consistency in one's cognitions.   
   >   
   > Because repression is unconscious, it manifests   
   > itself through a symptom or series of symptoms,   
   > sometimes called the "return of the repressed."   
   > A repressed sexual desire, for example, might   
   > re-surface in the form of a nervous cough or a   
   > slip of the tongue-in this way, although the   
   > subject cannot speak the desire out loud (since   
   > their conscious mind is not even aware that the   
   > desire exists), the subject's body can still   
   > articulate the forbidden desire through the   
   > symptom.   
   >   
   > A person can suppress the impulse to "choke the   
   > life out of some idiot who desperately needs it"   
   > for higher reasons, such as sociability, or more   
   > mundane reasons, like keeping a job - especially   
   > if it's a co-worker or boss being considered for   
   > the assault. The desire remains conscious, but   
   > is thwarted by the exercise of willpower due to   
   > a rational decision to avoid the action.   
   >   
   > In spite of the popularity and wide use of this   
   > concept in psychoanalysis and popular   
   > literature, this proposition of "motivated   
   > forgetting," where the motivation is (1)   
   > unconscious and (2) aversive, the process of   
   > repression has never been demonstrated in   
   > controlled research. It is often claimed that   
   > traumatic events are "repressed," yet it appears   
   > that it is more likely, not less, that the   
   > occurrence of these events is remembered, if in   
   > a distorted manner. One problem from an   
   > objective research point of view is that a   
   > "memory" is usually defined as what someone says   
   > or does, that can measured and recorded, since   
   > we have no way to verify the existence and/or   
   > accuracy of a memory except by the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)