Freud’s Concept of the return of the repressed & muse on how it might be useful for understanding horror.

Sigmund Freud developed a psychodynamic concept which suggests an individual’s psychological behaviour is influenced by pre-conscious, conscious and unconscious matter. The theory consists of 3 main components; the ID, ego and superego- which battle to balance and maintain a neutral state of mind. The ID and superego are constantly in psychological conflict, while the ego acts as a defence mechanism, repressing unpleasant memories or experiences into the unconscious mind. However, if the ego is weak or experiences such as sleep are able to surface this unconscious material abnormality of the mind can occur. Therefore the mind fights to contain these feelings and repress the undesired thoughts from returning into the conscious state.