Return of the Repressed

The Freudian Slip.

The Freudian slip is believed to be a verbal mistake made during talk which reveals something from the unconscious mind. (A regular example being saying 'orgasm' instead of 'organism' or calling a partner by an ex's name. He claimed that although a thought, feeling or

desire is repressed it doesn't all together disappea

r, instead it lives within the unconscious mind and always trying to reappear into the mind. Although the ego would try to stop this being expressed it will still sometimes come out.

The theory was created by Sigmund Fre

ud who believed the mistake was due to the unconsciou

s minds wants, desires or beliefs. "Besides the simple forgetting of proper names there is another forgetting which is motivated by repression," the theory links in with the theory, the return of the repressed.

Links with the Horror genre;

It's been said by some theorists and directors that there are only three main types of film in the horror genre,

• The evil within
• Return of the past
• Unnatural forces/Supernatural/Scientists

The return of the past links with the horror genre as with the return of the past it is often a hidden past, a forgotten past or a past of a family/generation. Also, this can use dreams, repressed memories this was covered by Freud in his essay The Uncanny. In the film 'Halloween' character Michael Myres - serial killer - has been helped to repress his urge to kill which started as a child when misinterpreting his older sister fornicating and took a phalic knife to her. When Halloween came around again he didn't repress his actions and instead killed a group of young people who were in a sexual act or nature. The theme is the return of the past in that on a specific date the killer reappears to the neighbourhood and the dilapidated house in which he first killed his sister.

Also, in the film 'Unborn' the main character is a female who was a twin but the other died in the womb. This knowledge is kept secret from her till she starts getting haunted by what would appear to be her 'brothers' unborn spirit. However, through digging around in the past she finds her biological grandmother and discovers the spirit was the brother she killed as he was evil after being tortured as Nazi's in the war and at the end of the film she finds out she is pregnant with twins, which was the change that made the repressed return. The main theme in this is the return of the past in that the ghost is haunting through her family through generations of children and twins.