Repression

In his first theory of hysteria, the illness traces back to repressed trauma from childhood, usually sexual; the buried memory resurfaces disguised as a neurotic symptom.

Put simply Freud's first theory of "hysteria": the illness comes from a childhood trauma, usually sexual, pushed out of awareness. The buried memory comes back in disguise, as a nervous symptom.

For Freud, neurosis and psychosis lie on one continuum of repression, differing in degree; Shore draws the consequence that everyone is mentally ill, since nobody lacks repressed trauma.

Put simply Freud: milder disorders ("neurosis") and severe ones ("psychosis") differ only in degree, both coming from repression. Shore draws the conclusion that everyone is mentally ill, since nobody lacks repressed trauma.

In the text In "Neurosis and Psychosis" (1924; Riviere translation), Freud writes that "Neurosis is the result of a conflict between the ego and its id", and psychosis of a like disturbance between the ego and the outer world.

Nearly every child goes through an Oedipal phase: love shifts from breast to mother, the father becomes a rival, and a flickering wish for his death is quickly buried.

Put simply Freud: nearly every child goes through an "Oedipal" phase. The child's love moves from the breast to the mother, the father becomes a rival, and a fleeting wish for his death is quickly pushed out of mind.

Civilization is bought with repression of both drives: to live together people must curb sex and aggression alike, which is why society and individual fulfillment pull against each other.

Put simply Freud: civilization is paid for by holding back both our basic drives. To live together, people must curb sex and aggression alike, which is why society and personal fulfillment pull against each other.

Joining the Enlightenment debate, Freud grants that the state of nature is genuinely free and liberating, but that freedom comes with a great deal of violence and aggression.

Put simply Freud: life before organized society (the "state of nature") really is free and liberating, but that freedom comes with a great deal of violence and aggression.

Human aggression is a standing threat to any society, so living together means constantly suppressing it; the hostility we cannot aim at others gets turned back on ourselves.

Put simply Freud: human aggression is a constant threat to any society, so living together means always holding it down. The hostility we cannot aim at others gets turned back on ourselves.

Civilization, Freud writes, is largely "constantly created anew": every individual entering society must in turn give up instinctual satisfaction for the community's sake.

Put simply Freud: civilization is rebuilt in every generation, because each new person joining society must give up some satisfaction of their drives for the good of the community.

On Shore's analogy, sexuality does for Freud what property does for Marx, and guilt does what power will do for Foucault: pervasive, dispersed, latent in every relationship.

Put simply Shore's comparison: sexuality is to Freud what property is to Marx. And guilt is to Freud what power will be to Foucault: present everywhere, spread out, hidden in every relationship.

Beauvoir finds Freud as reductive as Marx: psychoanalysis swaps existential choice for hardwired drives and involuntary repression, a determinism she cannot accept, however seriously she takes sexuality.

Where Freud has violence repressed into the unconscious, Girard has it transferred outward onto a surrogate victim: projected onto someone else rather than locked in the psyche.

Put simply Shore's contrast: Freud says we push violence down into the unconscious mind. Girard says we push it out onto a substitute victim, blaming someone else instead of locking it inside ourselves.