Also known as the ironic process theory, this refers to the phenomenon wherein deliberate attempts by a person to suppress certain thoughts might actually cause them to reappear. Thus, the conscious attempt to suppress a thought may not be the best way to avoid it. It is named after a challenging task, of trying not to think of a white polar bear, posed by Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The White bear problem was first studied by American social psychologist Daniel Wegner in 1987. The idea has since then had a significant influence in the field of clinical psychology where it has been applied to the proper treatment of anxiety and depression.
