Abstract: The Freudian theory of repression has been largely debated in the psychological world. In this piece I hope to explore its modern counterpart, dissociation, and how it relates to John Cheever’s piece, “The Swimmer.”

Dissociation and Repression

The concept of “repression” commonly dates back to Freudian theories of psychoanalysis. Freud writes, “‘the essence of repression lies simply in turning something away, and keeping it at a distance, from the conscious.’” (p. xi, Freudian Repression) This theory, however, has been challenged by modern psychologists and has led to substantial controversy. This controversy is largely due to the fact that repression, in itself, poses a paradox. According to Freud, the ego acts as the “‘repressing agency”’ and must “continuously guard against the repressed becoming known.” Yet, this means the ego must know “what it is not meant to know,” (p. xiii, Freudian Repression). This problematic nature of repression is believed to be a fundamental reason that “‘has kept psychoanalysis apart from the rest of science,”’ (p.xii Freudian Repression).

Specifically, repression is believed to be the ego’s response to “disturbing or threatening thoughts,” in order to prevent them from “becoming conscious.” (Mcleod, “Defense Mechanisms) Some psychological disorders may involve these “disturbing” thoughts that would result in repressive behaviors. An example of this is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One study hoped to evaluate this correlation and determine whether the concept of “repression” is useful in understanding PTSD.

This study applied a more recent description of repression as “individuals who have an elevated threshold for detecting anxiety-provoking cues,” (Palyo et al. 56 ) rather than individuals who unconsciously ‘forgot’ thoughts or emotions that caused anxiety or conflict. Using this definition, they established four distinct subgroups to conduct their experiment. The groups were as follows: repressors (low anxiety, high defensiveness); low anxious (low anxiety, low defensiveness); high anxious (high anxiety, low defensiveness); and defensively high anxious (high anxiety, low defensiveness). They then conducted testing to determine levels of PTSD symptomology, depression, anxiety, and “where appropriate, perceived pain and disability,” (Palyo et al. 55). Their data did not identify any significant differences in the repressor’s levels of PTSD symptomatology, depression, and additional anxiety disorders, relative to the low anxious group. It also found “the high anxious and defensively high anxious groups appeared to experience significantly greater psychological distress compared to repressors and the low anxious group.” Thus, their data did not suggest that repression was useful in understanding the complexity of PTSD.

Due to its controversial nature and ineffectiveness, repression is rarely discussed in contemporary psychoanalysis. Yet, you may find references to its distant cousin, “dissociative amnesia;” which can be “classified as one of the dissociative disorders in which well-integrated functions of memory, identity, and perception or consciousness are separated (dissociated).” Patients suffering from dissociative amnesia “have recurrent episodes in which they forgot important or personal events, usually connected with trauma or severe stress.” (Frey et al. 2019) The period of time in which they forget is dependent upon which type of dissociative amnesia they suffer from: Localized amnesia refers to forgetting a specific time period of or following a traumatic event; selective results in the inability to recall some, but not all events of a trauma; generalized results in an inability to recall any details of his/her life; continuous results in an inability to retain new memories, or to remember any events following the trauma; and lastly, an individual suffering from systematized amnesia may only forget details from specific categories of information.

In John Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer,” we follow the protagonist, “Neddy Merrill” as he travels down a “stream” of neighborhood pools he names “Lucinda River” after his wife, Lucinda.  There are several peculiar moments of dialogue and environmental changes that allow us to infer that Neddy’s perception of the world is not as it appears. Within the final lines of the story, Neddy completes his journey and arrives at his home where he believes his wife and “four beautiful daughters” (p.726, “The Swimmer”) will be waiting. Yet, he arrives at an empty, dark, locked home, alone. This reveal suggests that Neddy is suffering from what psychoanalysts refer to as “dissociative amnesia” or previously named, “repression.” Cheever drops hints of this condition throughout the story in order to allow readers to understand the hidden scope of Neddy’s reality. If you piece together these hints you will understand that Neddy went broke, was forced to sell his home, abused alcohol, drunkenly begged many of his friends for money, possibly separated from his wife, and was ultimately stripped of any social status or class. However, throughout the series of memories, Neddy remains entirely oblivious to any knowledge of these events. This implies that his mind suppressed these memories subconsciously.

These recent life events created levels of pain and anxiety that Neddy’s mind could no longer handle. And so, to manage these uncomfortable emotions, his mind dissociated from reality into his own world of delusion. It is only once he arrives at the empty home that he is forced to face his repressed memory and leave the realm delusion.

Works Cited:

1. Palyo, Sarah A, and J.Gayle Beck. “Is the Concept of ‘repression’ Useful for the Understanding of Chronic PTSD?” Behavior research and therapy 43.1 (2005): 55–68. Web.
2. Frey, Rebecca, Emily Willingham, and Zenobia Cofer. “Dissociative Amnesia.” 2019: 541–544. Print.
3. Boag, Simon. Freudian Repression the Unconscious, and the Dynamics of Inhibition. London, United Kingdom: Karnac, 2012. Print.
4. Mcleod, Saul. “Defense Mechanisms.” Simply Psychology. 2019. Web.
5. Cheever, John. “The Swimmer.” John Cheever: Collected Stories & Other Writings. Library of America, 2009. 726-37. Print.