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The concept of [[repression]] ([[French]]: ''[[refoulement]]'') is one of the most basic [[concepts]] in [[psychoanalytic theory]], and . It denotes the process by which certain [[thought]]s or [[memory|memories]] are expelled from [[consciousness]] and confined to the [[unconscious]].
[[Freud]] was first led to hypothesise the process of [[repression]] through his investigation into the [[amnesia]] of [[hysteria|hysterical]] [[patient]]s.
[[Secondary repression]] (Ger. ''Verdr‰ngung'') is a specific psychical [[act]] by which a [[signifier]] is elided from the [[signifying chain]].
[[Secondary repression]] is [[structure]]d like a [[metaphor]], and always involves 'the [[return of the repressed]]', whereby the [[repressed]] [[signifier]] reappears under the guise of the various [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]] (i.e. [[symptom]]s, [[dream]]s, [[parapraxis|parapraxes]], [[joke]]s, etc.).
In [[secondary repression]], [[repression]] and the [[return of the repressed]] "are the same thing."
The theory of '[[repression]]' is one of the cornerstones of [[psychoanalysis]].
[[Repression]] occurs when impulses, [[wish]]es or [[memories]], usually but not always of a sexual nature, that are bound up with the [[drive]]s, are denied access to the [[conscious]] mind by the [[ego]] because it regards them as a [[threat]] to its integrity or because they offend the [[ethical]] standards imposed upon it by the [[super-ego]].
Such impulses and wishes are forced back into the [[unconscious]] but almost inevitably find other means of expression by using the mechanisms of [[condensation]] and [[displacement]].
The resultant conflict between the respective [[demand]]s of the [[ego]] and the [[unconscious]] results in the formation of [[symptom]]s, which are a form of [[substitute]] sexual [[satisfaction]] or [[wish-fulfilment]].
[[Repression]] is not a single [[act]] which occurs only once, but a continuous application of pressure in the direction of the [[unconscious]].
The theory of [[repression]] is the key to the psychoanalytic understanding of [[neurosis]] and especially [[hysteria]].
[[Lacan]] argues that the triggering of a [[psychosis]] is governed by the different and specific process of [[forclosure]].
==Primal Repression==
The expression '[[primal repression]]' is used by [[Freud]] to refer to a hypothetical process in which the [[unconscious]] is constituted through the f[[ormation]] and [[repression]] of [[unconscious]] ideas and [[representation]]s.
The result is the lating [[fixation]] of the [[drive]] to one particular [[representation]].
'Primal' is used here in the sense in which [[Freud]] speaks of the [[primal scene]].
== def ==
The [[ego]]'s mechanism for suppressing and forgetting its instinctual [[instinct]]ual impulses.
