"whenever we try not to think about something that something gets trapped in the mind, stuck in the recursive loop of self-consciousness. Our attempt at repression turns into an odd fixation." "This human frailty has profound consequences. Dan Wegner, a psychologist at Harvard, refers to the failure as an "ironic" mental process. Whenever we establish a mental goal -- such as trying not to think about white bears, or sex, or a stressful event -- the goal is accompanied by an inevitable follow-up thought, as the brain checks to see if we're making progress. The end result, of course, is that we obsess over the one thing we're trying to avoid. As Wegner notes, "The mind appears to search, unconsciously and automatically, for whatever thought, action, or emotion the person is trying to control. ... This ironic monitoring process can actually create the mental contents for which it is searching." - Fred Yankowski