censor

In ancient Rome, either of two senior magistrates, high officials elected every five years to hold office for 18 months. They were responsible for regulating public morality, carrying out a census of the citizens, and revising the senatorial list. The Roman censorship was instituted in 443 BC, and was last held as an independent office in 22 BC. Thereafter, the various censorial powers came to be exercised by the emperor.

Censors were also responsible for the placing of contracts for revenue collection and public works (such as roads and aqueducts). They originally held office for a period of five years, but this was reduced to 18 months 433 BC.

censor

In Freudian psychology, the psychic function that prevents unacceptable unconscious impulses from reaching the conscious mind. This function leads to repression of intolerable ideas, memories, or impulses.

This view of the censor as a mechanism of repression has received considerable criticism, notably from French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in L'Etre et le néant/Being and Nothingness 1943.