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'''Psychological repression''', or simply repression, is the [[psychology|psychological]] act of excluding [[desire]]s and [[impulse]]s impulses (wishes, fantasies or feelings) from one's [[consciousness]] and attempting to hold or subdue them in the [[Unconscious mind|subconscious]]. Since the popularization of [[Sigmund Freud]]'s work in [[psychoanalysis]], repression is popularly known to be a common [[defense mechanism]].
Repression is considered unconscious and can often be detrimental. It may be contrasted with suppression, which is entirely conscious and thus can be managed. 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 is not conscious of the desire and so cannot speak it out loud, the subject's body can still articulate the forbidden desire through the symptom.
