Sigmund Freud- "The Return of the Repressed" in Horror Films

Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939, was an Austrian who founded pyschoanalysis. His theory "the return of the repressed" was ll about repressed elements; memories, desires etc that have never really been abolished, returning effecting our behaviour that is compromise between defense and wish.

An example of this is Mike Myers from Halloween (1978). After Myers kills his sexualised sister he is placed into a mental hospital by his parents. There his desires to kill those who have been sexual are repressed deep inside in his mind. It isn't untill he escapes does that desire returns and flood right back to the surface.

The "discliples" of Freud describe monsters as embodying this theory, gratifying the dark desires that have been repressed for along time. Myers, as I have already mentioned is one of these "monsters", along with Count Karnstein, who is known for being "a wicked man" and a satanist & using black magic, and Frieda, who has "the devil inside of her"  and is transformed into a vampire, from Twins of Evil (1971) are another examples of this theory of Freuds. Both of these characters, Count Karnstein and Frieda, are vampires and therefore have a dark desire for blood which in a way they can't control. Its natural for them.

Below is the trailer for Twins of Evil.

The actions of the killer/ monster is between the notion of the repressed ideas and repressing ones. They are found in physconeurotic symptons that baer the imprint of the denfensive conflict from which they result from. However, some of the symptons can be positive, the wish-fulling search for sexual satisfacation.

An example of this can be Twins of Evil,  Count Karnstein uses black magic and a human (female) sacrifice to summon Countess Mircalla Karnstein, an ancestor of his, back from the dead. After sharing her bed does he bite her and change her to a vampire. Another example of this is Lust for a Vampire (1971), in which Mircalla, is a vampire called Carmilla Karnstein. She uses her sexual appearence to make a man fall in love with her and serve her. In Hammer Horror, the vampires are seen as sexual creatures.

This can be a spirtual belief that is persuded. An example of this, again be Twins of Evil. In it the brotherhood punish those who practice the dark arts (witches) and devil worshippers. Mostly these are girls (females were not completely trusted by males) who they burn alive like medieval and stewart practices. They have grown up in a culture where these is common and it has been repressed in their minds since they were children and it's released when they are adults. Also the cross, warns off vampires as is seen in vampire horror films.

Horror audiences enjoy this because it is a natural, human behaviour that we ALL do at one point or another and in the society that we live in today it can be seen through the media. 

In 1904, Freud's theory was tested  by Carl Gustav Jung on Sabina Naftulovna Spielrein, who was a mental patient where Jung worked. This story has been turned into a film called A Dangerous method (2012), starring Keira Knightly, Viggo Mortensen,  Michael Fassbender, and Vincent Cassel.

Spielrein became the first female pyschoanalysist in her own right.