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In this article the author enters a plea for fair criticism of psycho-analysis, that is to say, criticism based upon a thorough knowledge of the subject. After giving a few examples of the common misstatements of the critics, he proceeds to give a brief exposition of Freud's theory of repression.
He draws a clear distinction between psycho-analysis and the 'confessional' with which it is so often confounded by those ignorant of the subject, and points
out that truly repressed material can only be brought into consciousness by some psychotherapeutic measure (psycho-analysis).
Having given a personal example of forgetting, typical of most cases, he points out that the most important reason for the forgetting of unpleasant memories is not merely to shut these ideas out of consciousness, but to prevent certain ideas from ever reaching consciousness at all. This, he states, is the essence of repression, its most important function, and leads to the dissociation of repressed ideas which now form the content of the unconscious mental system. He briefly points out how intrapsychic conflict results from repression, and how the tendency of repressed material is to seek gratification in imaginary form which is denied it in actuality. In this way day-dreams and neurotic symptoms are created.