Repression as Defense Mechanism

Read this article and was wondering if anyone has experience with what is described.

Repression is a defense mechanism first described by Sigmund Freud, as a way that people keep unpleasant memories out of their conscious mind. Repression is a compensatory style that deals with threat and stress by blocking unpleasant emotional experiences that might bring up anxiety, distress and vulnerability. Being split off from feelings is called alexithymia. Repressors have a chronic inaccessible filter that keeps them from experiencing the world through their emotions. They feel attacked and then distance and isolate from others when they are stressed. They avoid talking about and rehashing unpleasant experiences as this adds to their stress. They become inaccessible to others when they feel the problem has been solved by their solution of dismissing it. They are conflict avoidant and cannot tolerate working things out to the satisfaction of their partner. They often deny that there is a problem and have a lack of insight about how their distancing bothers others.

Repressors have one emotion--from A to A. They can feel and express anger. Anger is a substitute emotion for the hurt and disappointment they might feel. Anger takes them out of the emotional flat line and becomes their dominant emotion. They are stressed by having to deal with others on an emotional level and change the subject or evade the issue to keep people who are upset from bothering them. They tend to be more aggressive and have a higher belief in themselves than most people. On the positive side, Repressors are often less neurotic than those who express their feelings easier. They can see events objectively without emotions clouding up the issue.

Repressors remember fewer negative experiences from childhood. By minimizing the unhappy events, they distort reality and can even believe they had a happy childhood when they did not. The research literature suggest that they protect themselves from discomfort by superficially taking in negative events. They spend less time processing unpleasant new events and have the ability to dismiss them. This defense allows them to experience unpleasant emotions less frequently than emotionally intense people.

They do not form associations between negative experiences and internal arousal such as anxiety. They need repeated trials to link a negative experience with negative emotions. The assumption in the research literature is that repressors have a lack of emotional links in the brain which tie negative emotions to experiences.

People who repress their feelings view themselves as "thinkers" and proudly use their intellect to process information. Talking and problem solving take preference over feelings. They can be highly analytical like Mr. Spock of the Starship Enterprise. They often intellectualize which is trying to explain emotionally painful feelings through thought. Sometimes they feel superior over people who are more emotional and dismiss this style of dealing with stress. Often they put people down who are emotional. They just don't "get" feelings and talking things out!

Since they do not process their own emotions, they don't have a clue when it come to understanding emotions in others. They do the worst with partners who are highly emotional and insist on sharing feelings and who try to make the Repressor responsible for their anxiety that remains when there is no clear cut solution to the problem. They do best in relationships with a partner who leaves them alone and who does not insist on their engaging in continual emotional discussion. They do best of all with a partner who does not need closure on problems and has the ability to sweep conflict under the rug, however that rarely happens as they more likely to choose partners who are in touch with their feelings.

Opposites do attract! Remember each style is just a defense mechanism to deal with stress. Emotional pursuers and emotional distancers are drawn to each other and thus the great comedy of life begins!

Oh, definitely. I think repression is definitely an often-used defense mechanism and certainly can be used to keep abuse from coming into consciousness.

I repressed to extent I was in a trance-state most of
my life,until year 2000 when I first heard phrase
'Adult-Child'. Since then I've been waking and
growing,and accepting. I didn't KNOW I was a
child in man's body,such was the horror of my
abuse,I see it was necessary to go into trance to
avoid insanity and terror I lived in. The mind does
what is necessary for organism to survive.

This relates to me on such a high level, I definitely am this type and I can see in my family members as well. I can tell my dad and brother have this. My moms the type to pursue conflict and that puts a lot of pressure on all three of us. So we avoid a lot. This is why my family is majorly dysfunctional, this is one of the many reasons why, but I know it can't be helped. It was very enlightening to know though. Thanks for sharing!

I never heard of it before, but a lot of this article describes me.

However I'm also exactly the opposite of a lot of these descriptions.

I used to be highly emotional and dramatic and "neurotic" but now I'm only able to feel anger.

I do think I hide (in my mind) whenever conflict goes on around me, and I'd rather melt into a puddle on the floor than be involved in conflict myself.

So maybe some of my character traits match some of these, but I can't say "that's exactly me!!"

It's me except for the anger. I mostly get angry out of frustration when I don't have control, but if anything, I am the peace-keeper, trying to avoid conflict. If my husband gets upset about something, I will work hard to not inflame the situation rather than engage with him.

Regarding control: yes, I do get highly stressed and upset when life and situations are beyond my control :-)

OMG!!! This is ME!!!!

It partially describes me. StressedMess and WantToGrow describe me better, but I do have a large tendency to repress as well. I think maybe I am SO good at repressing, including anger, that I tend not to be very volatile at all, but I am often very emotionally flat. Instead of anger, I often tend toward mellow, and happy go lucky- at least behaviorally, what is happening on the inside may be a very different story. And I am actually good at empathizing, and people confide in me a lot- I keep cool, but say the right things, I guess.

I am more emotional since my traumatic brain injury 4 years ago, but still pretty "flat".

I think I do this in a big way. I have so many memories that suddenly 'break' into consciousness, and I wonder where they have been hiding. There is a whole list of defence mechanisms. they're pretty fascinating.

This is me 100 percent