J Heinrich Arnold-Freedom from sinful thoughts.pdf

8. SuppressionTHOUGH some evil thoughts can be easily dis-missed(or overcome by a short prayer), others are muchharder to expel. In the case of such “besetting” evilthoughts, our natural reaction is often suppression: topush the offending idea back down, deep into oursubconscious, in order to rid ourselves of it quickly. Butthat never works. As Freud and countless others haveshown, a suppressed thought will always resurface, justlike a corked bottle that is pushed below the water butbobs up again as soon as it is released. The onlyalternative – to continue with the picture of the bottle –is to grasp it and throw it out of the water altogether. Inother words, the most effective way to truly rid ourmind of a suppressed thought is to face it squarely andreject it. (Obviously I cannot agree with Freud’sconclusion to the problem: that one should release thetension by acting on the repressed thought.)