It is postulated that when confronted with stressful and painful situations or of deep feelings coming from the id of which we may feel deeply ashamed, we place /push these "off limits" thoughts and ideas into our subconscious in an attempt to forget not only about them but also that we have ever experienced them.

The subconscious mind and its feelings, ideas and problems may surface when we are confronted with a situation, which has resemblance, perhaps, to a previous unhappy and unresolved problem. This produces deep distress and sometimes further inappropriate behavior. This may manifest in frank mental illness-depression, anxiety, delusion and psychosis.