intellectualization

1. The act or process of intellectualizing.
2. An unconscious means of protecting oneself from the emotional stress and anxiety associated with confronting painful personal fears or problems by excessive reasoning.

An ego defence mechanism by which unacceptable emotions are transformed by explanations, which provide excuses for the undesirable behaviour.

Intellectualization is the use of the intellect to defend against instinctual impulses. Obsessive neurotics use intellectualization in an effort to master obsessive representations and exhaust themselves in an intellectual activity that is as intense as it is empty, forcing themselves against their will to scrutinize and speculate as if the most important and vital personal issues were at stake. We must not confuse this sexualization of thought, which resembles indefinitely prolonged and fruitless masturbation, that one can drive from intellectual beauty.

In Leonardo da Vinci (1910c) Freud gave a prototype of intellectualization in its defensive function: "His affects were controlled and subjected to the instinct for research; he did not love and hate, but asked himself about the origins and significance of what he was to love or hate" (p. 74). For Freud, this conversion of instinct into intellect had several consequences. First of all, it is by no means certain that reconversion in the reverse direction is possible, thus leaving the world of affects out of reach. In addition, "investigating has taken the place of acting and creating as well" (p. 75). These arguments are quite surprising, because Freud had earlier demonstrated in relation to "paths of reciprocal influence" (1905d) the interaction between thinking activity and sexual excitation. Freud's interpretation of da Vinci is also surprising because it contradicts what we know about Leonardo's creative power and his passion for it. However, while the example Freud chose may pose a problem, in Leonardo Freud was painting a picture of the passion for investigation with which he himself was not unfamiliar.

We find intellectualization more commonly in special instances of painful and incessant mental work, which can take the extreme form that psychiatrists call intellectual rumination. Pierre Janet describes it in the following terms: "It is a singular labor of thought that accumulates associations of ideas, interrogations, questions, innumerable research, in such a way as to form an inextricable labyrinth. The work is more or less complicated depending on the intelligence of the subject; but whether he goes round in a circle or goes off on branches, he never reaches a conclusion, he can never hold course and exhausts himself in a work that is as interminable as it is pointless" (1909). The distinctive feature of intellectualization is in fact its pointless and infinite character. Freud partly explains this through the fact that it is not the content of the thought that is pursued, but its pure mechanism. Speaking of mental rumination in relation to the Rat Man, he noted "The thought process itself becomes sexualized, for the sexual pleasure which is normally attached to the content of thought becomes shifted on to the act of thinking itself, and the satisfaction derived from reaching the conclusion of a line of thought is experienced as a sexual satisfaction" (1909d).

We may wonder whether speaking of a "conclusion of a line of thought" in such a case is not contradictory, a contradiction we already found in Leonardo, when Freud spoke simultaneously of the "feeling that comes from settling things in one's mind and explaining them" (1910c, p. 80), and "the fact that this brooding never ends and that the intellectual feeling, so much desired, of having found a solution recedes more and more into the distance" (p. 80). For Freud, obsessive intellectualization is by no means a gauge of intellectual development, which is in fact redirected for the purposes of combating the instincts and very often disappears once repression has acquired the upper hand.

Intellectualization does not derive from the sublimation of an instinct, like the pleasure of thinking, but on an idealization. Freud could thus write: "The struggle which once raged in the deepest strata of the mind, and was not brought to an end by rapid sublimation and identification, is now continued in a higher region, like the Battle of the Huns in Kaulbach's painting" (1923b).

Bibliography

Freud, Sigmund. (1905d). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. SE, 7: 123-243.

——. (1909d). Notes upon a case of obsessional neurosis. SE, 10: 151-318.

——. (1910c). Leonardo da Vinci and a memory of his childhood. SE, 11: 57-137.

——. (1923b). The ego and the id. SE, 19: 1-66.

Janet, Pierre. (1909). Les névroses. Paris: Flammarion.

Mijolla-Mellor, Sophie de. (1992). Le plaisir de pensée. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Further Reading

Kestenbaum, G.I. (1983). Toward a definition of intellectualization. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 6, 671-692.

—SOPHIEDE MIJOLLA-MELLOR

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

Intellectualization is a defense mechanism where reasoning is used to block confrontation with an unconscious conflict and its associated emotional stress. It involves removing one's self, emotionally, from a stressful event. Intellectualization is often accomplished through rationalization; rather than accepting reality, one may explain it away to remove one's self.^[1][2]

Intellectualization is one of Freud's original defense mechanisms. Freud believed that memories have both conscious and unconscious aspects, and that intellectualization allows for the conscious analysis of an event in a way that does not provoke anxiety.^[3]

Description

Intellectualization is a 'flight into reason', where the person avoids uncomfortable emotions by focusing on facts and logic. The situation is treated as an interesting problem that engages the person on a rational basis, whilst the emotional aspects are completely ignored as being irrelevant. The originator of the term was the British Kleinian psychoanalyst, Ernest Jones, who wrote the first paper on rationalization (1908-1909). Freud incorporated the idea and term about five years later.

Jargon is often used as a device of intellectualization. By using complex terminology, the focus becomes on the words and finer definitions rather than the human effects.

Intellectualization protects against anxiety by repressing the emotions connected with an event. It is also known as 'Isolation of affect' as the affective elements are removed from the situation. It allows to rationally deal with a situation, but may cause suppression of feelings that need to be acknowledged to move on.

Examples

Suppose Jimbo has been brought up by a strict father, and he feels hurt and angry as a result. Although Jimbo may have deep feelings of hatred towards his father, when he talks about his childhood, Jimbo may say: "Yes, my father was a rather firm person, I suppose I do feel some antipathy towards him even now".^[4]

Jimbo intellectualizes; he chooses rational and emotionally cool words to describe experiences which are usually emotional and very painful.

A person told they have cancer asks for details on the probability of survival and the success rates of various drugs. The doctor may join in, using 'carcinoma' instead of 'cancer' and 'terminal' instead of 'fatal'.

A woman who has been raped seeks out information on other cases and the psychology of rapists and victims. She takes self-defense classes in order to feel better (rather than more directly addressing the psychological and emotional issues).

A person who is heavily in debt builds a complex spreadsheet of how long it would take to repay using different payment options and interest rates.

A man who has trouble meeting women may buy a book on meeting women, research online, or ask others for advice. The man may have his problem figured out in his mind, but in reality the man still has no experience with women because he hasn't actually attempted anything he has learned.

Footnotes

1. ^ "Intellectualization". changingminds.org. http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/intellectualization.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-11. 
2. ^ "Defenses". www.psychpage.com. http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/counseling/defenses.html. Retrieved 2008-03-11. 
3. ^ "Defenses". www.psychpage.com. http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/counseling/defenses.html. Retrieved 2008-03-11. 
4. ^ Changing Minds explanations for coping behaviours retrieved February 18, 2009

v • d • e Defence mechanisms Level 1 - Pathological Delusional projection · Denial · Distortion · Splitting Level 2 - Immature Acting out · Fantasy · Idealization · Passive aggression · Projection · Projective identification · Somatization Level 3 - Neurotic Displacement · Dissociation · Exaggeration · Hypochondriasis · Isolation · Intellectualization · Rationalization · Reaction formation · Regression · Repression · Undoing Level 4 - Mature Altruism · Anticipation · Humor · Identification · Introjection · Sublimation · Thought suppression Other/ungrouped Compartmentalization · Minimisation

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