repression

Meaning: In psychodynamic (Freudian) theory, the ego protects itself from anxiety caused by conflict among the id, superego, and reality. Defense mechanisms do this by distorting or blocking threatening material. In repression, the unacceptable impulse, painful memory, or forbidden wish is kept out of conscious awareness without the person choosing to do so. The material is not erased; the theory holds that it stays in the unconscious and can still influence behavior, dreams, or slips of speech.

On the MCAT: Expect a vignette in which a person cannot recall a distressing event, such as an upsetting childhood experience, yet shows anxiety linked to related cues. You must name the defense mechanism. Questions often ask you to choose among repression, suppression, denial, displacement, projection, reaction formation, regression, rationalization, and sublimation. The key is to match the behavior to the definition. Forgetting that is motivated by anxiety and is not deliberate points to repression.

Common confusion: Students mix up repression with suppression and denial. Suppression is conscious: a person knows about the thought and deliberately pushes it aside, such as choosing not to think about an exam until later. Denial is refusing to accept that an external fact or reality is true ("I'm not sick"), while repression is blocking the memory or impulse itself from awareness. Also, repression is a motivated, unconscious process and is not ordinary forgetting from decay or interference.