Home > Oxford Dictionary of Sociology > reaction formation
reaction formation
reaction formationA psychoanalytic concept denoting one type of defence mechanism. When a feeling or idea is felt to be especially threatening it may be dealt with by enthusiastically embracing its opposite. Thus a man who is threatened by his own homosexual feelings might engage in aggressive heterosexual behaviour.
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
- The Oxford Dictionary of Economics
- The Oxford Companion to American Literature
- The Oxford Companion to American Military History
- The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization
- The Oxford Companion to English Literature
- The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales
- The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
- The Oxford Dictionary of Plays
- The Oxford Dictionary of Art
- Oxford Dictionary of Sociology
- Oxford Dictionary of World History
- Oxford Dictionary of World Mythology
