Psychology2026-04-25
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Suppression Mechanisms: Janov vs. Wegner

Wegner (mental control and suppression) and Janov (primal pain and gating) describe suppression using opposite mechanisms that both appear empirically valid.

TensionWegner (mental control and suppression) and Janov (primal pain and gating) describe suppression using opposite mechanisms that both appear empirically valid. Wegner's Account: Attempting to suppress a thought requires monitoring for the thought. The monitoring keeps the thought accessible. Therefore, suppression paradoxically increases cognitive availability of the suppressed thought. This is proven through Wegner'
pressure 14speculative
What Would Need to Be True
For this collision to be definitively resolved: 1. Empirical validation of whether Janov's endorphin-gating mechanism actually prevents cognitive access, or whether cognitive leakage occurs despite physiological gating 2. Neuroimaging studies comparing cognitive suppression (Wegner paradigm) with physiological suppression (gating) to show whether they activate different neural systems 3. Clinical observation of whether people with strong physiological gating (successfully suppressed primal pain) show Wegner-type ironic accessibility effects at the cognitive level 4. Theoretical integration specifying the conditions under which each suppression mechanism operates
Connected
conceptGating Mechanism: Endorphin-Mediated RepressionsourceThe New Primal Scream
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