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The concept of repression was introduced at the inception of psychoanalysis and the lifting of repression remains the major aim of the psychoanalytic method. The primary purpose of the analyst is to make it possible for the patient to experience, recall and tolerate the feelings, fantasies and memories he has up to this point repressed. How this occurs and how it is 'curative' has been and continues to be the subject of considerable discussion, for example by Strachey (1934), Yorke (1965), Bird (1972), Klauber (1972), Rosenfeld (1972), Compton (1975) and Southwood (1975).
Repression proper is first manifest at the time of the childhood neurosis. It helps to mitigate the child's anxiety engendered by the expression of intense libidinal and aggressive feelings towards those persons upon whom he is dependent. Repression, that is, the turning away of attention from these strong feelings, allows the child to maintain meaningful relationships with his parents and his siblings. However, as is the case with all defensive measures, a price is paid for this. Even though the process of repression occurs at a period when there has been considerable maturation of the cognitive functions, the turning away of attention from crucial inner experiences creates what might be considered a maturational lag. The maturational lag is particularly apparent in those situations later on in life which are likely to evoke intense libidinal and aggressive reactions.
In ordinary situations, that is, in other than the psychoanalytic one, the maturational lag associated with the process of repression limits the individual's capacity, when involved in libidinal and aggressive interchanges, to recognize adequately the intentions of other people. Because of the anxiety and inhibition which continues to be mobilized in sexual or aggressive situations over a period of years, there is an impairment in the capacity to discriminate between those actions and statements from other people which are inte