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‘Vienna Blood’ & Self Care
Mental health & memory
Dr. Max Lieberman
In the PBS program, “Vienna Blood,” a recent medical school graduate (Dr. Max Lieberman) becomes enamored with the teachings of Dr. Sigmund Freud. This plot arrangement allows the new psychiatrist, Max to talk to us — the audience — about the teachings of Freud.
One of the interesting moments is when the character, Max talks about repression. He says it takes a lot of energy to repress terrible things that have happened to us. Trauma. Violence. Abuse.
Those are just examples of the the personal traumatic events in the lives of individuals that many of us, perhaps all of us repress. If Max (and Freud) are correct, it would explain many of the issues many of us have when it comes to mental health issues.
Depression. Bipolar disorder. Anxiety. Social anxiety. It would be almost anything but it is not the incident; it is the response we consciously make or unconsciously make.
Imagine women who have been subject to sexual violence and never report it. Imagine the amount of energy they have to use each day to keep that level of trauma inside and not in their active consciousness.
A recent paper explains psychological repression of trauma or difficult memories as follows:
