Psychoanalysis was founded on the idea that childhood trauma was repressed and that symptoms arose as the result of the return of the repressed memories in disguised form. Current experience with symptoms following catastrophic trauma in adults finds that these symptoms result from the inability to repress memories of the trauma. Part I of the article investigates the differences in these two formulations and their apparent contradiction. Part II discusses theoretic views and clinical material that point to the possibility of underlying theoretical similarities in Freud's understanding of the consequences of trauma and the consequences of massive trauma in adult life.