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Marc Ermshaus

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Ironic process theory

Published on 24 Jul 2009. Tagged with psychology.

Wikipedia:

Ironic processing is the psychological process whereby an individual's deliberate attempts to suppress or avoid certain thoughts (thought suppression) render those thoughts more persistent. A classic example is Fyodor Dostoevsky's quote from Winter notes on summer impressions: "Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute."