Reaction Formation: Defense Mechanisms by Sigmund Freud
Reaction formation Reaction formation is actually mental process, transforming anxiety-producing thoughts into their opposites in consciousness. This is where a person goes beyond denial and behaves in the opposite way to which he or she thinks or feels. By using the reaction formation the id is satisfied while keeping the ego in ignorance of the true motives.Conscious feelings are the opposite of the unconscious. Love - hate. Shame - disgust and moralizing are reaction formation against sexuality. Usually a reaction formation is marked by showiness and compulsiveness. In short, reaction formation means expressing the opposite of your inner feelings in your outward behavior. Theory Reaction formation depends on the hypothesis that " the instincts and their derivatives may be arranged as pairs of opposites: life versus death, construction versus destruction, action versus passivity, dominance versus submission, and so forth. When one of the instincts produces anxiety b...