Repression

Preventing painful/dangerous thoughts from entering our consciousness. Repression is unconscious. For example, many people have the experience of not being able to remember much of their childhood. While that is common, what is also clear is that much of their childhood memories have been repressed, that is, have been pushed out of consciousness and therefore out of ready access. Sometimes, very painful events are repressed for years; sometimes surfacing when triggered by later events, but sometimes not.

Some people begin to have repressed memories of childhood return when they themselves become parents, as they find themselves in a similar experience as when they were young.