Freud had a theory that we all have repressed elements; feeling's or memories that are preserved in our unconscious mind. These repressed elements reappear unknowingly in our behaviour or a slip of the tongue. They can even be a large part of our character. He believed most of these repressed elements are formed in childhood, and then reapear in our behaviour in later life.
Freud believed a child had to repress these primal feelings, or disires as they are socialy or moraly unacseptable, and our ego stops us from letting them be known to anyone else or even ourselves. Many psychologists now refer to 'the return of the repressed' when studying cases of mental illness.
An example of this can be seen in the horror movie 'Halloween', where a young boy witnesses his sister and her boyfriend having sex and goes on to re-enact the act by stabbing sexually active young people.
This worked well in the film at the time because it was one of the first to follow such a storyline. However, if a film were to do the same now - showing the childhood repression at the beggining of the film - it wouldn't work as well because this is a storyline that is now all too predictable.
Freud thought that a child HAS to represss its basic, prim itive urges and emotions in order to become part of society. This is why we cannot remember our early childhood. So our murderous rages and selfish desires disappear into our unconscious, from where they will sometimes return. Does horror allow us to experience their return, in a 'safe', controlled way?
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