“An important turning point came when a flood of the experiences that I had been denying to awareness came close to the surface. I was frightened and upset.” When denied experiences come close to the surface, anxiety always results because these previously unadmitted experiences will have meanings that will change the structure of the self by which one has been living. Any drastic change in the self concept is always a threatening and frightening experience.
“When the denied experiences broke through the dam, they turned out to be hurts and angers that I had been completely unware of. “
It is impossible for most people to realize how completely an experience can be shut out of awareness until it does break through into awareness. Every individual is able to shut out and deny those experiences that would endanger his or her self concept.
Carl Rogers, A Way Of Being, 1980.
