Formation Personality Scenario: A Well-Respected

¶ … Formation Personality

Scenario: A well-respected politician finds himself aroused by erotic images. His ego relieves his tension through the unconscious use of the defense mechanism of reaction formation. Explain how this defense mechanism works according to psychoanalytic theorists. Incorporate into your answers specific ways that the politician might display the results of reaction formation in his career.

Though a great deal of Freudian Psychoanalytic theory has been discredited and therefore gone into disuse, one of his most profound psychodynamic observations that remains a viable concept is his theory of defense mechanisms. This theory and the manifest descriptions of defense mechanisms have in fact been added to and amended by more current psychologists and theorists as a result of the fact that many of them are universal human concepts that people see in other's behavior on a frequent basis. (483)

Defense mechanisms, serve the particular purpose of protecting the self (in Freud's case the fragile Id or childlike self from the rigid self or the Super-ego through trickery of the referee the Ego) (483) from psychological harm. To protect the self from harm the defense mechanism governs a dogma, behavior or a set of behaviors that in some way tricks the individual and his or her environment into believing that things are different or more specifically motivations are different than they really are. To protect the self the ego tricks the Id into believing that he or she is under control and the Superego into believing that the personality is acting in a way that is more reflective of the rigid morals that the superego is in charge of. (482-484)

The text specifically defines and describes 6 defense mechanisms proposed by Freud and others. (484-485) One of these defense mechanisms is titled "reaction formation," and is described as when a feeling or insight experienced in the conscious conflicts with the unconscious (or makes it anxious) the opposite action or belief is revealed in the conscious, often in the form of dogmatic or behavior that is the opposite of actual feelings. In other words the politician with the very human craving for erotic images reacts to his arousal with a conscious adaptation of the reverse, claiming openly that such images and/or erotic actions are perverse and therefore in need of combat and censure from society. (484) politician that finds himself aroused by erotic materials even though he is in the rigid socially acceptable situation of a marriage and a public servant, might feel guilt about the event or events or how it made him act or feel and respond with reaction formation. His overactive super-ego demands rigid acceptance of social conformity, including a set of standards that are applicable to him being a role model to others. He might ask himself the question, " that if he, as a conservative role model, cannot control his physical urges what then would a less "public" and conservative individual do if he or she were exposed to such materials? His response with regard to reaction formation might tell him that despite ample scientific evidence that arousal from erotic imagery is normal and even healthy and that the majority of people who view such material still remain within the confines of acceptable adult morality, that the average lesser individual might react to erotic material by committing adultery, raping or acting sexually aggressive toward someone, turn deviant (i.e. gay), or the worst case scenario inappropriately touch a child. All of these fears are aspects of reaction formation, as the reaction to reality (i.e. that most people still act within social norms if exposed to erotica) is distorted to protect the man from his own urges.