Concept
Reaction formation
Adopting an attitude opposite to a repressed wish.
- Broader concept
- Defense
- Introduced by
- Sigmund Freud
- Key works
- 2
- Related
derives from
- Repression 1905 Freud first conceives reaction formation as a way of carrying out repression: in the Dora case the opposite of the thought to be repressed is over-strengthened so that it keeps the repressed thought down. In Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety he still speaks of “repression by reaction formation”, though there he also ranks it as a mechanism of defence in its own right.
- Countercathexis 1926 In the addenda to Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety Freud presents reaction formation as the form countercathexis takes in obsessional neurosis: an internal countercathexis that alters the ego, as against the external countercathexis of hysteria and phobia, which is turned against dangerous perceptions.
introduced by
- Sigmund Freud 1905 In the Dora case Freud observes that repression is often achieved by excessively strengthening the opposite of the thought to be repressed. He calls this “reactive reinforcement” (Reaktionsverstärkung), and the over-strong conscious thought the “reactive thought”, which holds its objectionable counterpart in repression. The same year the Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality name the process “reaction formation” (Reaktionsbildung).
reworked by
- Sigmund Freud 1926 In Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety Freud recasts reaction formation within the structural theory as an alteration of the ego: the countercathexis of obsessional neurosis, which reinforces the attitude opposed to the drive to be repressed (pity, conscientiousness, cleanliness). He ranks it as a mechanism of defence beside regression and repression, and contrasts the obsessional's generalised character traits with the hysteric's reaction formation, which clings to one particular object.