Relevance of Thought Suppression Experiments to Clinical Psychology

This article presents research on thought suppression relevant to clinical psychology. Thought suppression is a process wherein individuals try not to think of an intrusive unwanted thought. After attempts to suppress the unwanted intrusive thoughts, is the individual really successful in sending them away from the consciousness? If yes, for how long? These are some of the questions being investigated in this relatively new but vibrant area of cognitive applied research. An answer to these questions is even more relevant for people suffering from psychopathology and those dealing with them. Thought suppression has now been implicated more or less as an etiological and/or maintaining factor for several disorders. In this article some of the counterproductive effects of thought suppression observed in experimental studies of obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and stress disorders, depression, and phobias are discussed.