- Repression is defined as controlling or limiting someone or something by force or by exercise of authority, or the unconscious exclusion of thoughts from the mind.
- When women are not allowed by men in society to be equals and are kept in a state of forced subjugation, this is an example of repression.
- When someone does not remembers a painful time in their early childhood, this is an example of repression.
- a repressing or being repressed
- the mechanism by which ideas, impulses, etc. are repressed
- something repressed in this way
Origin of repressionMiddle English repressioun ; from Medieval Latin repressio
- The act of repressing or the state of being repressed.
- Psychology The unconscious exclusion of painful impulses, desires, or fears from the conscious mind.