Ode to Repression

Disinhibition is the stuff of snake oil salesmen. Repressive desublimation was Herbert Marcuse’s response to "turn on tune in drop out." The Frankfurt School philosopher’s idea was that hedonism created a false euphoria that took the pressure off and covered up the healthy instinct for change.  It's easy to be reactive and spontaneous and more challenging to ruminate. Taking action can be like a hot potato, but these kinds of impulsive behaviors often lack impulse control. You may have been freed from indecision only to be set loose on a path based upon a faulty perception of a reality. Repression is what many patients enter into therapy to escape. On the other hand, it has its place on the food chain of consciousness. It allows the dust of delusion to settle in such a way that the sharp lines of reality supplant the ephemeral maelstrom of emotion.

read "Make Love and War" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

and listen to "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" by Marvin Gaye