Emotional Expression. Emotional expression, sometimes considered the antithesis of repression, is the ability to acknowledge and express emotions. The literature demon- strates a positive association between emotional expression and health (Pennebaker, 1989; Pennebaker & Beall, 1986). Findings indicate that emotional expression of negative and traumatic events has a salutary influence on immune functions and resistance to illness. For example, in experimental studies, subjects who wrote their deepest thoughts and feelings about past traumas experienced enhanced T-cell responsivity (Pennebaker, Kiecolt- Glaser, Glaser, 1988) and improved overall health (Pennebaker, 1989; Pennebaker, & Beall, 1986) compared with control subjects who wrote about trivial events. Further, Temoshok (1985) found correlations between emotional expression.
