repression /ripresh″ən/ [L, reprimere, to press back] , 1. the act of restraining, inhibiting, or suppressing. 2. (in psychoanalysis) an unconscious defense mechanism that also underlies all defense mechanisms, whereby unacceptable thoughts, feelings, ideas, impulses, or memories, especially those concerning some traumatic past event, are pushed from the consciousness because of their painful guilt association or disagreeable content and are submerged in the unconscious, where they remain dormant but operant. Such repressed emotional conflicts are the source of anxiety that may lead to any of the anxiety disorders. Compare suppression. −repressive, adj., −repress, v.
