Psychoanalysts understand the mechanism of repression through two theoretical lenses which I will refer to as the Freudian lens and the structural linguistics lens. The Freudian lens is founded on Freud’s conception of infantile sexuality and the process through which the infant navigates the social predicaments and hazards of its erotic (sensually pleasurable) encounters during the course of its development. Infants are sensually embodied and somatically centered, not having a developed a mental apparatus that is adept at symbolic functioning. Their first object relationships include sensual interactions with caregivers who bathe, stroke, caress, and hold them. These intimate, pleasurable encounters are imprinted in the body (“the body keeps score”) as a passionate affair with the first love object. Sadly, in the years to come the infant will have to relinquish this love affair, often with much suffering, loss and feelings of abandonment. The universality of the incest taboo ensures that this erotic love affair with one’s caregivers is banished from memory and awareness. If you ask most adults whether they had an erotic love for their parents, they will often scoff and deny that there was ever any hint of such feelings for their parents. This reaction demonstrates that repression is complete and the unconscious has been born.