Lecture 2 of the “Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis” written by Sigmund Freud, explains repression and wishful impulse, and the short story “Eight Bites” by Carmen Maria Machado provides us with an illustrative representation of those terms. Freud argues that repressed wishful impulse still exists in the unconscious mind, which later on presents itself as a replacement with the same revolting feelings. Machado describes the narrator’s experience, thoughts, and emotions through the process of getting bariatric surgery. The narrator’s mother implemented the idea of one needing to eat only eight bites to have a normal body; consequently, the narrator disliked her body image and the way she ate because she was not satisfied with just eight bites of food. “Eight Bites” by Carmen Maria Machado represents Freudian’s concepts of wishful impulse and repression as the narrator in this short story struggles with an eating disorder and body dysmorphic disorder.

To begin with, Machado demonstrates Freud’s idea of wishful impulse by describing the narrator’s thoughts and emotions before going through bariatric surgery. By the hand of her mother, the narrator learned that to have a normal-looking body, you must only eat eight bites. The concept of eight bites was imposed upon her since youth, which led her to think highly of it. Although she tried her best to live by this ideology, she was not satisfied with only eight bites. The author argues that “I ate eight bites and then stopped… I pressed my finger into the shard and carried it to the trash can. I turned and looked back at my plate… I sat down again, picked up my fork and had eight more bites… After, I finished what was in the pot on the stove and I was so angry I began to cry.” (Machado). Undoubtedly, not being able to fulfill her wishful impulse of only eating eight bites caused her sadness and pain. She wanted to have a normal body shape like her mother, but she was not satisfied with the small portion of food required to reach such a goal. Freud states that trying to give in to an “incompatible wishful impulse… would have produced a high degree of unpleasure; this unpleasure was avoided by means of repression”(Freud, 2212). As shown in “Eight Bites” the narrator’s attempts to only eat eight bites bruised her self-esteem; getting bariatric surgery was her way of repressing her impulse to eat more. As can be seen, a wishful impulse is illustrated in the narrator’s timeline and feelings.

Without a doubt, Machado demonstrates Freud’s idea of repressed wishful impulse manifesting itself as a replacement through the narrator’s journey after the bariatric surgery. After the surgery, the narrator was able to get into the habit of only eating eight bites, and although she did not eat more, she would still hesitate to throw the food away after those eight bites. The author argues, “I count the bites and when I reach eight I throw the rest of the food in the garbage. I stand over the can for a long while… ”(Machado). Before surgery, she would be hesitant to throw the food away and would end up eating more bites; now, although she is hesitant, the wishful impulse of taking more bites is repressed, but the idea still resurfaces in her mind. In lecture 2, the author demonstrates, “It is true that they have driven it out of consciousness and out of memory and have apparently saved themselves a large amount of unpleasure. But the repressed wishful impulse continues to exist in the unconscious.”(Freud, 2215). Furthermore, repression may hurt you without you even knowing it. Repressing wishful impulses helped get rid of the pain, but because the impulses still exist in the unconscious mind, they can reappear in the conscious mind. Freud states that the repressed wishful impulse may appear again in the conscious mind, this time disguised and unrecognizable. This new substitute can cause unpleasant pain, thus repression is just a temporary solution causing more psychological conflicts. In essence, repeating such events of repressing impulses and the reappears in the conscious alters one’s persona as new ideologies are created upon the repressed one. 

Ultimately, the conflict of repressing wishful impulses depicted through the process of bariatric surgery helps others understand the linguistics behind psychological concepts. Learning the connection between Freudian concepts helps acknowledge new ideas in psycho-analysis. Although further study needs to occur, understanding what is now wishful impulse and repression helps psychologists understand those who do not know what they are going through. Taken into consideration that Freud has developed ideas through other plans, one can argue that further advancement will occur. Freudian concepts represented in a common topic such as eating and body dysmorphic disorder helps nondoctors understand the analogy.