screen memory

American

noun

Psychoanalysis.

a childhood memory, perhaps recalled falsely, that screens out a more distressing recollection.

screen memory British

noun

psychoanal a memory that is tolerable but allied to a distressing event and which is unconsciously used to hide the distressing memory

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of screen memory

First recorded in 1920–25

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023