Return of the Repressed: Process whereby what has been repressed -- though never abolished by repression -- tends to reappear, and succeeds in doing so in a distorted fashion in the form of a compromise between the defense and the wish. (Laplanche and Pontalis)
The compromise between the repressed ideas and the repressing ones is to be found in psychoneurotic symptoms which bear the imprint of the defensive conflict from which they result. For Freud, some symptoms show more of the positive, wish-fulfilling search for sexual satisfaction (such as hysterical symptoms). Others show more of the negative, ascetic impulse, such as the symptoms of obsessional neuroses.
see parapraxis.
In Freud's analysis the return of the repressed occurs in the various neuroses through processes such as displacement, condensation, and conversion. (see also affect.)