O recalque is a protection mechanism which leads the individual to repress memories of traumatic events, desires, etc. Based on this reading, understand how the return of the recalcitrant and how to treat its symptoms.

Understanding Recalque

Definition of recalcitrance: " Verdrängung "It represents the most severe clinical phenomenon of resistance in psychoanalysis.

This phenomenon is constituted as a defense mechanism It was initially worked on in Freudian studies on hysteria, but today we can say that it is part of every human being, in a broader way.

The effects of traumatic events in childhood

Sigmund Freud says that the recalcitus is a resistance to the force of the drive and desire. In fact, such defense tends to make the drive inoperative. The drive is hidden, but not completely: its energy is converted into something else. Although unconscious, the drive continues to exist, but in a more organized way, starting associations to find a way to flow. In fact, all mechanismsof the individual's defense ends up bringing a bit of a recalcitrant to himself.

The drives that lead the recalcitrant to pleasure, have several external pressures that end up making him suppress his wills. It's as if the person to deny the existence of such feelings or emotions to better live with its own principles or within a culture.

In addition, this can occur due to events that occurred in your childhood, that bring back memories, that make you feel pain or shame. However, such a procedure can lead to various mental disorders.

Freud and the classes of recalcitrance

Freud divided recalcitrance into two classes:

• a primary where there is a repression that does not progressively eliminate the unconscious, but constitutes it (here there is a battle where the unconscious insists on satisfying the pleasure drive); and
• a secondary where repression is a negation of unconscious representations.

This means that the subject ends up rejecting certain representations, ideas, thoughts, memories or desires, producing an unconscious negation. There is a blocking of conflicts, which ends up generating anguish. It is a kind of shield formed to protect the subject from the confrontation that would bring back what was repressed.

The symptoms of return

Within a diagnosis of repression, what is realized is that repression only makes conscious the unconscious through the symptoms of return of the recalcitrant who are identified through their dreams or their neuroses.

Nowadays, according to popular speech, a person who is envious, who speaks ill of people, who is selfish, is called recalcitrant. But this has nothing to do with the definition within psychoanalysis. Even though it is a recently recognized expression by many, this name has been used within psychoanalysis since 1895.

"When you have a desire, aspiration, instinct or even an experience that is considered "absurd" by you, something that is painful, difficult to accept or even dangerous, automatically comes into play this unconscious defense of our mind, which represses this desire or thought. It is like a safety mechanism that prevents us from becoming ill with such an idea by removing it from our sight. Then it throws thisdesire or thought to our unconscious, where we can no longer access it and can continue our life in a healthy way without having to deal with this repulsive thought." (Featured on Psychology for the Curious website)

Recalcitrance and Repression

Some aspects that are recognizably present in recalcitrant people are:

• have low self-esteem;
• always find fault with others;
• have great difficulty in recognizing the success of other people;
• feel very exaggerated and endless suffering (you are always suffering);
• not accepting the opinion of others (there is always something contrary to present);
• Being a "defensive" person: responding aggressively or apologetically to others' ideas;
• no self-criticism;
• reject therapy, as a way to avoid putting the "finger on the wound".

The Return of the Recalcitrant

What happens is that many times we end up with memories that cause us pain and anguish, so it is necessary to invest time to work on these repressed feelings.

When it happens, precisely these memories that were directed to the unconscious reappear in the conscious or in behavior, that is what gives name to this flawed act of return of the recalcitrant .

These memories usually reappear in a distorted or deformed form and can be identified through dreams, failed acts, daytime dream fantasies, or psychopathological symptoms.

The worst manifestation is the symptoms. The person has mental and physical discomforts that she doesn't even realize that they are the result of unresolved issues in the unconscious .

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How to reduce conflicts arising from the return of the repressed

The return of the repressed ends up satisfying the conscious and unconscious, by its distortion, and goes beyond the defenses of the repress, not producing displeasure or pain. We can say that the pain ends up returning, but in a disguised form. We call this disguise symptom .

Therapies are indicated to calm the conflicts arising from the return of the repressed. The search for the unraveling of the story and the release of the content that lies in the unconscious of the subject is the goal to integrate it into the conscious chain.

Bringing to consciousness the truth about the pleasure of the repressed can cause you a lot of pain. Facing the reason for your repression can be frightening. Therefore, there are particular techniques to treat these symptoms.

Final considerations

Healing comes through the recognition of desire. Therapy works precisely to bring out what is hidden in the unconscious.

The recalcitrant rarely admits his desire So if there is some repression, he is afraid of the consequences that might ensue, should he admit to enjoying or taking pleasure in the repressed or repressed practice.

Simply talking about his repressions can bring relief to the patient. As time goes by, the unconscious desires may reveal themselves. recognition of desires and through psychoanalytic therapy With time, the symptom disappears.

The present text about Reloading, Resealing, and the Return of the Reloaded was written by Denise Fernandes, exclusively for Training Course in Clinical Psychoanalysis (learn more) .

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