It is a powerful unconscious repetition compulsion at play. The "Bitter Pill"So what is the secret to resolving the pesky and persistent repetition compulsion? The repetition compulsion has a basic survival function. I call this critical turning point in treatment the “bitter pill.” (p. 286)With this courageous, conscious acceptance, confrontation, and coming to terms with the past, the repetition compulsion, like the past itself, loses its disastrous domination over us in the present.