ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud's thinking was to develop in various ways, many of the core assumptions underlying the theory of repression, as well as psychoanalytic theory as a whole. The view that repression is motivated by the recognition of incompatibility between desires and morality and the subsequent experience of unpleasure brings one the role of the "ego" (Ich). The term Ich or "I" appear in Freud's earlier writings to simply refer non-technically to a notion of "self". Since repression is a motivated activity, instigated by the ego in response to "trauma", the question is then whether repression is a simple act of avoiding painful stimuli that can be described as voluntary or "intentional". The ideas arousing unpleasure and leading to repression were generally considered to be "immoral", and though Freud's theory of sexuality had not yet explicitly emerged. Freud discusses the repression of traumatic memories during adult life.
