I had an idea for a novel that uses the "Crossworlds Fantasy" genre, where, basically, the main protagonist (or any number of characters) are transported, somehow, to a form of alternate world or reality. This world involves an annual phenomena dubbed by the people within "our" world as the Scarlet Night, a phenomena that happens on a random day at a random time, once a year, where the sun suddenly seems to disappear from the sky around a certain region of the world and, in its place, what appears to be the image of a giant crimson moon appears in the sky, dying the entire sky a thick, translucent red. Randomly, some people within this region will have been unlucky enough to have given in to the sudden desire to gaze up into the sky on this phenomena and be swooped away from the world they once knew. It has been the subject of various novels and many people have composed fantasy stories using the unknown after-effects of the Scarlet Night as the plot of many questions and debates and various people claim to have seen what it is like on the other side of the night, though were deemed insane and usually sent to a psychotic ward for treatment, as it was commonly thought that people who were spirited away by the crimson moon could have never returned. As for the people who were unfortunate enough to have given in to the call of the Night found themselves in what appears to be the distorted version of an endless city -- a town with skyscrapers and parks and even delicately arched bridges running over rivers. A town they could not leave. No humans inhabited this city and in this moment only 2 creatures existed and could ever exist within it: Human-like creatures who dubbed themselves Animas to distinguish themselves from the other denizens of the Scarlet Night. Those who got themselves abducted by the crimson moon were now Animas, and the one who granted them the name Anima did so due to the Animas nature. Anima, meaning a form of personality that is directed more towards the subconscious of the individual the personality belonged to, describes perfectly the prominent personalities of these Animas. They all were granted weapons which they said was the new form their consciousness took -- as such, they simply referred to the weapons as "Consciousnesses." These Consciousness allowed them to survive in the eternal conflict between Animas and the other race as they were given special properties -- magic-esque abilities -- the nature of which was dependent upon the nature of the Anima's Consciousness before the Scarlet Night. This happened due to the inherent disconnection of the Consciousness and Subconsciousness when the Animas enter the Scarlet Night, turning the two into separate, distinct entities rather than two layers or parts of a whole. However, as such, the subconscious became the prominent personality for the Animas -- the origin of the name Anima. Along with the fact that the nature of a human's subconscious is constituted by pieces of their consciousness, there is another reason that at first an Anima's personality doesn't change much upon initially entering the Scarlet Night -- their Consciousness derive their abilities from a power source known as Sanity. This Sanity exists within Animas and is what allows their Consciousness to better stabilize Animas' personalities, however it depletes upon utilizing their Consciousness and, over-time, more and more changes will be made to their personality. These changes derive from pieces of their subconscious becoming more and more prominent in their personality -- suppressed emotions and lost memories coming forth, mental illness that were originally mild become more severe, or entirely new ones forming, it becomes more and more hard to not act on instinct and desire and harder to forget, harder not to express oneself in a sincere yet different manner. If their Sanity is totally depleted, they die and become Lunatics. Lunatics are much more simple -- they're the other denizen of the Scarlet Night. Lunatics are the "true" form of the Anima's subconscious and come forth when either the Anima dies, gets their Sanity depleted or has their Sanity absorbed by a Lunatic. The nature of a Lunatic is, like the Anima's Consciousness, dependent upon the nature of the subconscious of the Anima they stemmed from and their abilities can be described as typically being either superior versions of or opposite to the Anima they originally were -- however, as a downside to this transformation, Lunatics lose ANY human nature and become creatures that are like shadows and are driven by one desire: Kill Animas and/or siphon away their Sanity. ... This is all I have thus far and though I am aware it isn't the most original idea ever, but I posted it here so to give context as to how the subconsciousness would become more prominent. I am at a loss, though, as to how exactly I would go about writing characters who subconsciousness gradually become more prominent in their personality. How exactly are things suppressed and what occurs when they are? What would happen if these things became more prominent? Etc., etc..
Uhm, I am not a psychologist, but maybe read up on PTSD and related therapeutic concepts? I figure that psychologists who deal with people who don't want to think about stuff (due to horrible experiences) may have an angle on coming to grips with memories? Which would maybe be a hint on how the subconscious could come to more prominence and eventually get into the conscious mind? Sorry if I am not more help.
Suppression usually has to do with things that aren't acceptable whether in your mind or to society, and things that are too much for the conscious mind to handle, but as the person above said, researching PTSD should help you. Or maybe do research on what our natural instincts are?
