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FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT
of society it has to obey the social conventions, and also to submit to sheer brute force from others at times. Sometimes it entertains desires that cannot be gratified, or that are repulsive and forbidden. They have to be repressed. But intense desires are not easily repressed. They become distorted by repression, and exist in disguised form under the surface. Their associations, too, become affected by their repression and distortion, and the motor reactions are involved. Thus great abnormality comes to exist in the region of the sub-conscious, which may even manifest itself in the worst cases, in the form of mental derangement. Glimpses of this abnormality may also be caught in the anomalies of the individual behaviour. The under-currents of these abnormal surcharges of emotion are generally kept under control during the waking hours; but they become too powerful for the drowsy consciousness of a dreaming mind to be checked. They can then readily jump over the barrier of the censor if they disguise themselves a bit. This is why dreams are generally found to be centred round the fulfilment of repressed wishes. This is also the reason why abnormal subjects become normal if they recall the genesis of the primary repressed
affect,' and unburden themselves in regard to it before some one. The explanation is simple: repression, which signifies the forcing down of a longing for fear of what others would say, disappears the moment the
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