VICISSITUDES OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORIES IN A BILINGUAL ANALYSIS

In this article, I address a number of important issues regarding the nature of repression in bilingual analyses. Repressed memories are ass umed to hold the key to pathological formations and to the development of transferential manifestations that arise in attempts to work throu gh the conflicts associated with these memories. The nature and qualit y of the individual's dreams, as well as the whole associative process , are also assumed to be influenced in this way. Analysis of patients who know more than one language to communicate their experience, howev er, is beginning to raise some questions as to the best way to underst and the work of repression in these individuals. I contend that becaus e certain memories are more accessible in one language than the other, repression for bilingual individuals may be partly a function of ling uistic accessibility. The concept of repression will therefore need to be reassessed in the context of these observations.