In psychoanalytic theory, what is the defense mechanism that involves motivated forgetting of anxiety-inducing material?

Repression is a defense mechanism in psychoanalytic theory that involves the unconscious process of keeping distressing thoughts, memories, or feelings out of awareness. This mechanism serves to protect the individual from anxiety by burying troublesome thoughts in the unconscious mind, preventing them from surfacing into conscious awareness. This way, individuals do not have to confront the emotional pain or discomfort associated with these memories or thoughts.

For instance, someone who has experienced a traumatic event may push those painful memories away, effectively "forgetting" them as a means of coping with anxiety. This process is often automatic and occurs without the individual’s conscious effort, which is why it is characterized as motivated forgetting. In contrast, other defense mechanisms like denial, projection, and displacement function differently; denial involves refusing to accept reality, projection entails attributing one's own unacceptable feelings to others, and displacement involves redirecting emotional responses from a true target to a substitute.