ABSTRACT
Psychologists have a long history of interest in inhibition, the active suppression of a behavior, thought, or feeling. Whether, or under what conditions, inhibition is problematic or beneficial is not clear. In the clinical world, inhibition has often been considered a negative tendency, resulting in psychological problems due to nonexpression of the inhibited emotion, thought, or behavior (Pennebaker, 1997; Polivy, 1998).1 For example, suppression of one’s memory for a traumatic event in childhood has been associated with problems such as depression and addiction (D. Brown, Scheflin, & Hammond, 1998; L. M. Williams, 1994). On the positive side, cognitive researchers have documented how necessary inhibition is to human functioning, facilitating abilities such as selective attention, decisional action, and the like (Bjorklund & Harnishfeger, 1995). Similarly, clients frequently seek out or are referred to therapists for things they wish to inhibit, including behaviors (e.g., drinking, smoking, acting out behaviors, compulsive rituals, etc.), thoughts (e.g., general worries, ruminations, obsessive thinking patterns), and uncomfortable or debilitating emotional states (e.g., anger, anxiety, sadness, and depression).
