Health psychology/Defence mechanisms · Neurotic

Reaction formation

What it means

Transforming an unacceptable impulse into its conscious opposite.

Worked example

Unconscious hostility expressed as exaggerated affection; a person with unwanted impulses campaigns vehemently against them.

In the exam

A man with unacknowledged attraction he finds shameful becomes a loud, zealous campaigner against the very thing he is drawn to.

What settles it

Reaction formation flips the impulse to its OPPOSITE. Sublimation keeps the impulse but channels it constructively; undoing tries to cancel an act symbolically.

Classically confused with

Sublimation

Source: AMBOSS