The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders by John E. Sarno

Author:John E. Sarno
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Gerald Duckworth & Co
Published: 2011-08-08T16:00:00+00:00

REPRESSION

We are fortunate in having at our disposal both conscious and unconscious defenses to deal with extremely painful emotions. When we refer to repression, we are talking about the unconscious, something most people don’t even think of as affecting our blood pressure.

We repress emotions without knowing we are repressing them.

This is a simple and important statement, but one that many people either do not comprehend or do not believe. Repression does not involve making a conscious effort to put aside emotional pain. We simply don’t feel the pain, essentially a gift from our unconscious defenses that keep it from our awareness. This is very different from the conscious defense of diverting our attention away from emotions we know are distressing us, for example, by keeping busy.

An example that illustrates conscious and unconscious defenses is the process of grieving. We could not function during the grieving process if we were overwhelmed by the pain all day every day. We use our defenses, both conscious and unconscious, to shield us from the pain. Sometimes we repress the pain and don’t feel it, and are surprised that we feel okay, as if nothing had happened, even though we know that we have been deeply wounded. At other times we feel the pain and make a conscious effort to keep it out of mind. We keep busy and focus our attention on the tasks at hand to avoid thinking about our loss. And, of course, there are other times when the pain scars us. These are the times when we actually are doing the work of healing, by feeling the pain until it eventually begins to ease and becomes more tolerable. We are psychologically healthiest when we can use conscious and unconscious defenses to tamp down emotions that are too much for us, enabling us to encounter these emotions at a pace we can handle, deal with them, and ultimately heal.

In handling emotions related to severe trauma, repression is a very valuable defense for us. I have seen many patients who were survivors of severe abuse or trauma. Many have suffered psychologically the rest of their lives. Others escaped those consequences by repressing the emotion, and seem to be doing much better psychologically than those who did not repress or in whom repression broke down. Repression can lead ultimately to consequences such as hypertension, but the hypertension is treatable and, I would think, preferable to lifelong emotional torment.

In handling emotions related to trauma, conscious and unconscious defenses do not work in isolation from each other. Even people who have repressed all their trauma-related emotions have at one time felt deep pain, whether for days or weeks or longer. In many people, the pain subsides after the conscious handling of a severely painful emotion, leaving a residue of painful but tolerable feelings that come up from time to time. In others, trauma-related emotions are completely repressed and, although the story is remembered, there is no conscious lingering pain.

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