According to Sigmund Freud, painful experiences or memories (usually of a sexual nature) are repressed, and the repressed libido is forced to find outlets for its sexual energy. Such outlets can include fantasies, fetishes, and voyeurism. Freud noted that guilt, fear, and shame commonly accompany these cravings. People felt embarrassed about expressing their sexual desires because, in our Western societies, explicitly addressing sex was considered taboo. Freud found that the repression of a personís desires caused mental stress and used a treatment method called "psychoanalysis" to uncover the roots of his patientís affliction. He believed the road to discovery was through an unconscious mental process where the patients speak about whatever happens to be in their minds in an attempt to find the origins of these feelings.

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