Thought suppression is defined as the process of attempting to put unwanted thinking out of one’s mind, including thoughts, images, ideas, and/or urges. Although thought suppression attempts tend to succeed initially, in the long term they often backfire, ironically causing unwanted thinking to return more frequently than if one had not attempted suppression. Because of the preponderance of unwanted thinking in clinical problems, thought suppression has been investigated broadly across a range of psychopathological and emotional states. This entry gives an illustration of the thought suppression phenomenon, followed by a brief overview of the major theoretical perspectives on the processes underlying thought suppression and its commonly measured outcomes. The entry concludes with a summary of what is known about the links between psychopathology (i.e., mental ...

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