‘Freudian repression’ – the very phrase is ambiguous. At first glance, it indicates quite simply Freud's theory of repression. Freud believed that people repress, or drive from their conscious minds, shameful thoughts that, then, become unconscious. This was his key idea. As he wrote, repression was the ‘centre’ to which all the other elements of psychoanalytic thinking were related. More obliquely, the phrase ‘Freudian repression’ suggests something else: maybe Freud, himself, was engaging in a bit of repression, forgetting things that were inconveniently embarrassing. The ambiguity is deliberate, for both meanings are intended. Freud's idea of repression remains vital for understanding human behaviour. Yet, right at the centre of Freud's central idea is a gap: Freud does not say exactly how repression takes place. It is as if Freudian theory, which promises to reveal what has been hidden, itself has hidden secrets. However, if we want to understand repression, we must try to see what Freud was leaving unsaid.

The present book aims to reformulate the idea of repression in order to fill the central gap. Repression is not a mysterious inner process, regulated by an internal structure such as the ‘ego’. It is much more straightforward. Repression depends on the skills of language. To become proficient speakers, we need to repress. The business of everyday conversation provides the skills for repressing, while, at the same time, it demands that we practise those skills. In this respect, language is inherently expressive and repressive.