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In this rather lengthy paper the author attempts to elucidate the meaning and mechanism of repression by exploring its relation to rationalization. A dynamic view of mental functioning is taken. It is suggested that rationalization or manipulation of evidence usually plays an essential part in repression. 'If … the repressing agent were not prepared and efficient in producing the rationalization of a compulsion, the true motive of the latter would become conscious and the repression would temporarily be broken down'.
The author feels that the current view of rationalization involves the assumption that man has a natural rational impulse which is brought to life when a complex is touched. The thesis of the paper, on the other hand, is that rationalization is 'the very process of (the) repression which establishes the complex'.
No use is made of the concepts Id, Ego, Super-ego. 'If Freud had ever been able to make his censor clear to me, I might have been willing to identify the repressing impulse with the latter', gives a fair picture of the author's familiarity with psycho-analytic theory.