Hello amid this gentle music; I’m Wang Fang. Last time we saw Freud divide personality into three psychological functions—the id, ego, and superego. Their different goals often conflict, leaving the ego, trapped between them, anxious. When ordinary rational means cannot relieve that anxiety, the ego may turn to irrational methods, seeking not success but self-preservation. Together these are called ego defense mechanisms.”。

Defense mechanisms take many forms. Today I will introduce eight representative ones. One further note: Freud proposed the concept and basic framework, but their detailed exposition was completed by his youngest daughter, the distinguished psychologist Anna Freud (1895–1982).

First comes the most fundamental and important defense mechanism: repression.（repression）。Repression is the process of driving desires and motives forbidden by the superego or social morality into the unconscious. For Freud’s patients, these might include an unspeakable love for a father, sexual longing, secret aggressive impulses, or memories too painful to revisit. Displayed openly in the conscious “living room,” they would be too threatening and unacceptable to the superego. The ego therefore packs them away in the unconscious “dark room.” That is repression.

Repression protects the ego from the superego’s reproach, leaving the “living room” apparently serene. Yet the desires and motives do not disappear. Filled with energy and seeking release, they stir restlessly in the unconscious, looking for an outlet and waiting to break through. In Freud’s clinical experience, repressed impulses found many forms of expression, commonly symptoms of illnesses such as hysteria.

As mentioned in Episode 20, during Freud’s era hysteria was the most prevalent mental illness, and the great majority of patients were women. Its common features included physical symptoms—partial paralysis, repeated coughing, blurred vision, even loss of speech—with no corresponding physiological basis. No organic lesion caused them; the problem was psychological.