How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Among these wishful impulses derived from infancy, which can neither be destroyed nor inhibited, there are some whose fulfilment would be a contradiction of the purposive ideas of secondary thinking. The fulfilment of these wishes would no longer generate an affect of pleasure but of unpleasure; and it is precisely this transformation of affect which constitutes the essence of what we term "repression." (6.1.11)
In Freud's view, as we mature and are socialized, we learn to think of certain wishes, desires, and impulses as being distasteful—particularly those related to sexual taboos or those that emerge from excessive forms of anger, jealousy, or greed. Because our adult selves would find it distressing to see these infantile wishes realized—as in cases where adult dreamers dream of the deaths of loved ones—these wishes are repressed.
Quote #8
The memories on the basis of which the unconscious wish brings about the release of affect were never accessible to the Pcs., and consequently the release of the affect attaching to those memories cannot be inhibited either. (7.6.38)
In Freud's view, the "preconscious" (Pcs.) is always going to do its best to inhibit the expression of wishes that will result in unpleasure, anxiety, or distress. But because unconscious memories are inaccessible to the preconscious, all it can do is try to censor them as best it can. That's why dream-thoughts are subject to so much distortion.
Quote #9
On the contrary, the unpleasure principle takes control and causes the Pcs. to turn away from the transference thoughts. They are left to themselves—"repressed"—and thus it is that the presence of a store of infantile memories, which has from the first been held back from the Pcs., becomes a sine qua non of repression. (7.6.38)
Popular knowledge of Freud's theories tends to represent repression as a kind of "pushing down" of ideas that are upsetting, distressing, or uncomfortable. How often have you heard people say that they'd like to "repress" a thought or image that grosses them out? But here in The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud doesn't suggest that repression is an active act of "pushing down." Instead, it's a process in which certain thoughts are simply "left to themselves."