Pop Psychology Part 3: Reaction Formation
First of all it's probably better for you all to know that reaction formation is a Freudian defense mechanism concept...Sigmund Freud is arguably a brilliant mind and impacted how we look at human beings today a whole lot, but is generally controversial and many(Myself included)do not accept all his ideas. He came up with the concept of the Id, the Ego and the Superego, aka the infamous concept of the little cartoon angel(Superego)and devil(Id)whispering by your(Ego)ears. I won't go into the specifics, but know that Freud believed that our unconscious aka subliminal mind constantly plagues us with primitive wants, sexual desires, forbidden pleasures, etc.(You get the point...), but our conscious mind keeps us in check with the reasoning and good lil' choirboy thoughts that we're supposed to have. People who let their subconscious overtake their conscious are considered crazy. He argued that people are basically nasty, primitive creatures who rely on society's regulations to hold us back from our nasty lil' thoughts. We are sexual. We are unrestrained. It is our nature to be perverse.
Freud was not popular in his time.
But as said, he held some great ideas that impact our social structure today; Instead of always focusing on what is apparent on the outside, he held great reverence for what is on the inside. Hypnosis, past regression, those were his ideas. Instead of always attacking our reactions to immediate stimulae, Freud looked at inner angst and deep emotional pangs, what most of us think about when we think about psychology today.
But I digress...I don't expect many people to agree with reaction formation or to find it too prevalent in their own psyche, but below is just the summarizing of an oft-used psychological term and how it affects our favorite people.
Reaction formation is basically when "an unacceptable impulse is transformed into its opposite," "concealing a motive by consciously experiencing the opposite," "Adopting beliefs, attitudes, and feelings contrary to what you really believe."(I figure other people can explain it better than I can...so there)
The most obvious and understood example would be that of a little boy who constantly bullies and pulls on the pigtails of the little girl who he secretly has a crush on(Eminem and Christina come to mind...but I'll get to that later...>:D). He has these feelings for her, but knows from his peers that girls have cooties and need to be hated and that it is unacceptable to be on "their" side, so he tries to hide his "unacceptable" feelings toward her by acting totally and extremely in the opposite of what he feels, acting "acceptably." After all, he's got an image to uphold. Think Calvin and Susie. Reaction formation can be either conscious or unconscious, but it usually becomes the latter.
Other good examples: *A normally nice person from a segregated school treats colored people badly because it's the "acceptable" thing to do; God forbid his peers see him as a sympathizer. A good student loves school and her classes, but intentionally flunks them lest others see her as a geek. A gay man uncomfortable with his identity tries to act unordinarily butch.
*A fourteen year old boy gets ribbed in his passion for pop music so he goes to extremes to get into the alternative scene(This used to be me, in case anyone's interested).
*Another guy(Or girl, really)likes *NSYNC, but knows that it's uncool for him to, so he goes out of his way to put them down whenever possible, lest someone discovers his "shameful" secret. Now we're getting somewhere...incidentally, see my "Why I'm a guy and still like *NSYNC" and "Why other guys don't like *NSYNC" pages.
Getting the picture? Let's branch out...*An aggro-rock group is secretly appreciative of the type of image *NSYNC and other pop artists set, but has their own image and ideals to maintain...I mean, seen sympathizing with these wussy lil' pop groups? Of course not! Of course they're gonna bash them whenever possible and make up excuses to condemn their music and creativity.
*A normally respected English teacher is very interested in the phenomenon of *NSYNC, but doesn't wanna lose credibilty in front of his students, so to be "accepted" he puts them down like every other day(I swear he does this, I've been trying to figure this guy out ever since I got him this year, and this is the only conclusion I can get at...:P).
Why is it that *NSYNC is such an easy target for these types of reaction formations? Well, anyone can see, the ideas that *NSYNC portrays...it may seem welcomed, but it's got that clean edge that people are afraid of. Afraid of liking. They'd rather be seen hatin' on them then supporting them, 'cause it's just the cool thing to do, even if they don't feel that way at all inside. That is the basis of the defense mechanism known as reaction formation: The concept of scorning your own true emotions so as to be accepted by the greater whole.
As with most psychological concepts it can go the other way too...if *NSYNC is supermajorcool with a certain group of friends, a member of that group may pretend to like *NSYNC even if she really doesn't.
Do you honestly think he cares that someone would diss on his marital values in a little video-special? I mean, obviously Em wouldn't be too pleased 'bout it, but does he really care enough to make it into this big 'ol feud? He's got people ratting on him left and right every day, what's with the sudden Christina obsession? Okay fine, I don't think Em's the picture of psychological stability either, so most factors wouldn't apply to him anyway(That and the fact that it'd drive me slowly but surely and permanently insane if I were try to get into his head), but think about it: What's with the sudden afflictions? If we look at his, ahem, "condition" as reaction formation it can be more easily explained.
Looking at Em as an outsider, I kinda really get a little too much waaaay confused as to why he would even care that much about pop music at all, why the heck does he wanna get himself caught up with all this feuding artists crap? But see, Eminem has got the ultimate badboy image. Even if he really doesn't care about what pop music does or doesn't, he goes against it in the extreme for fear of people fitting him in that position, as a "pop-sympathizer," which in today's cynical MTV world would be the ultimate goodboy image, totally unacceptable for him. He said it himself, one of the things he hates most is people seeing him as pop(Okay, I personally feel that just by getting into this feud thing he's got more people associating him with pop, but whatever...).
Of course, we can also more easily fit him as one of those guys mentioned above who really likes pop but wants to fit with the more hardcore artists so he goes out of his way to diss them so won't people see his "shameful" interest...but in the long run that seems unlikely.
What about his interest in Christina? Okay, did anyone get that "Slim Shady Please Shut Up" song off of Napster? First of all, it's hilarious. Second of all, there's a line in there that goes, "...Slim Shady is just a boy dealing with puberty," and really I think that sums it up pretty well:).