The buried truth germinates and breaks through to the light. – George Bernard Shaw
I’ve written on a number of occasions about reaction formation, the psychological defense mechanism by which the mind shields itself from uncomfortable desires (usually sexual) by forming an obsession with the opposite of that thing. “A preacher who is obsessed by porn might frequently speak out against it from the pulpit, and a man who is obsessed with child porn in particular might champion legislation against it, or…seek a position investigating allegations of pedophilia.” A man obsessed with whores might devote endless hours to a website about how we’ll all burn in Hell, or to writing column after column about “sex slaves”, with their tortures described in lurid, loving detail.
A repressed homosexual might even become a “counselor” in a ministry dedicated to helping others to “pray the gay away”. The syndrome is much more common in men, but not unheard of in women:
…Lisa Biron, a Manchester, N.H., lawyer associated with the Christian litigation group, Alliance Defending Freedom, was arrested by FBI agents…on [Mann Act] charges… possession of child porn…and …sexual exploitation of children…Biron transported a teen girl…to Ontario…and coerced her into engaging in sexual acts with another person…[according to Queerty, ADF is] “a group of reactionary Christian attorneys lawyers pressing litigation to curb reproductive rights and block the freedom to marry“…[it] was founded in 1994 by…Focus on the Family’s James Dobson and American Family Association’s Donald Wildmon, among others…[and] has been fighting against gay rights for over 18 years…
Biron is not the only sexually-repressed lawyer who thinks the prohibitions she vigorously supports should not apply to her; James Cameron was a federal prosecutor dedicated to punishing people for enjoying illegal pleasures, but has now fled the gears of the life-destroying legal machine he served for years:
Less than 12 hours after a federal appeals court upheld seven of his 13 [child porn] convictions…former drug prosecutor James Cameron cut off his [electronic tracking] ankle bracelet and disappeared…[if caught he faces] 16 years in federal prison…
Reaction formation is the psychological equivalent of burying some abhorrent thing underground and piling junk on top of it. Sometimes the thing stays buried, with the “reaction” behavior marking it like a cairn; other times the cover washes away and the despised urges are revealed to the world, as in the cases above. But sometimes the buried lust rots, decaying in the subterranean darkness into a thing of hideous foulness that eventually bursts forth to destroy not just the one who entombed it, but others as well:
A young Arlington woman is dead and her husband along with several other members of her secretive prayer group are suspected of raping her, then killing her and trying to make it look like a suicide…the body of 27-year-old Bethany Leidlein Deaton was discovered in a van near a lake southeast of Kansas City on October 30…[then] Micah Moore, a…fellow prayer group member…confessed [November 9th] to murdering her…[under] orders of Tyler Deaton, Bethany’s husband of a mere ten weeks. Tyler Deaton reportedly feared Bethany was about to tell her therapist that Tyler had been drugging her and forcing her to have sex with his friends as part of their religious activities. The assailants allegedly recorded their sexual assaults of Bethany Deaton on an iPad, and then wrote poems about the rapes…Moore told police that the charismatic…and domineering Tyler Deaton had sex with his male followers as well…The group…
followed Tyler Deaton en masse from Texas to Missouri to attend a Kansas City institution called the International House of Prayer University, an evangelical missionary training school…
So, what kind of “prayer group” involves coerced homosexual activity as “part of a religious experience”, plus the gang rape of a heavily drugged woman?
One of his group’s stark positions on Scripture was that homosexuality was wrong. Deaton’s stance against it weighed heavily because members said he had “struggled with being gay…He struggled with it, but he overcame it,” a [former] member of his group…said. “It was a victory”…The International House of Prayer had great appeal to the group…They loved the strong evangelism and the dedication to following Scripture…Many shared a belief that the “end times” were at hand…
There are certainly other motivations for prohibitionist fanaticism, such as vengeance or sour grapes. But when nothing in the fanatic’s personal history indicates an obvious motive, repressed desire for whatever it is he wants prohibited is nearly always a safe bet.
Great exposè. I came across an example of apparent reaction formation in an article about “crossing children’s sexual boundaries.” Here’s a critique of the article: http://sexhysteria.wordpress.com
I agree with what you say but I think we need to be careful in labelling people’s motives with such terms as “reaction formation”.
It’s a double-edged sword that can be weilded to great effect against our own side.
It’s real easy, after it’s been exposed (as in the cases you cite) to “label” motivations. However, if I can’t find such a history in a person’s background – I think it’s kind of lame way to dismiss his or her ideas with a psychological diagnosis I have no evidence to support.
For instance, I personally favor the death penalty in cases of violent rape. Does this make me obsessed with rape? Well, I’m pretty disgusted by it … it offends my sense of morality … but I don’t dwell on or fantasize about rape.
Pedophelia brings the same reaction from me. However, there’s not a spot in my brain that harbors fantasies or obsessions over it.
And … what’s it called when the opposite condition occurs? For instance, I favor decriminalization of prostitution – but someone on the other side could simply dismiss me by saying that I’m a pervo, who sees prostitutes so, of course, I’d avocate for decriminalizing the occupation.
Nope, it doesn’t work that way. Reaction formation never involves a person advocating for others to have free choice; it always involves prohibition, bans, persecution, witch hunting, etc. If the person so accused isn’t trying to wipe something from the face of the Earth at any cost, with no regard for choice, it ain’t reaction formation. The sufferer is so troubled by his feelings that he’s basically trying to remove them from existence, yet can’t stop thinking about them; this clearly cannot lead to advocacy for free choice.
Okay well, I’ll bow out of this one then since psychology is one of my least favorite subjects and one that I know little about. All I have to “lean on” here is Wikipedia, and by reading of that article – it didn’t exclude non-prohibitionist positions (though it DID use a lot of “prohibitionist” positions as examples of the phenomena).
You know what? Fuck psychology. Because I just clicked on one of the Wiki links under “Reaction Formation” called … “Counterphobic Attitude” …
So this is the reason I’m pretty much addicted to dangerous activities? Because … in reality, I’m scared of them?
And then there’s this under the same “Counterphobic” article …
You know, to a completely uncivilized dullard such as myself … it would seem that “psychology” has any kind of arrow you need in it’s “quivver” to slay your intended target.
I think I’ll leave the dark “joo-joo” of this magic to people like you who know WTF! 😛
Reaction formation never involves a person advocating for others to have free choice; it always involves prohibition, bans, persecution, witch hunting, etc. If the person so accused isn’t trying to wipe something from the face of the Earth at any cost, with no regard for choice, it ain’t reaction formation.
If I want to obliterate neo-Nazis from the face of the earth, and I regard Hitler as the antiChrist, does that mean I’m secretly a closet neo-Nazi?
The verity of any given statement does not prove its inverse. My statement can be symbolically represented as -X = -R, which does not automatically imply your statement of X = R.
There are certainly other motivations for prohibitionist fanaticism, such as vengeance or sour grapes. But when nothing in the fanatic’s personal history indicates an obvious motive, repressed desire for whatever it is he wants prohibited is nearly always a safe bet.
which does not automatically imply your statement of X = R.
If you’re going to get picky, I didn’t make a statement, I asked a question.
Further, I was making my point in reference to your “is nearly always a safe bet,” which is more like modal logic than propositional logic.
To make my point a little clearer, there are obviously a lot of people who have personal history with Nazism, who want to purge neo-Nazis from the Earth, and those people regard their quest as righteous vengeance.
But beyond the people who have relatives who were killed by Nazis, there are lots of people who have simply been propagandized and conditioned to hate Nazis.
Likewise, there are lots of people who have been propagandized to hate sex of various kinds. Their hatred does not result from some personal neurosis or repressed sexual desire – their hatred is the product of propaganda.
True fanatical hatred cannot come from propaganda; it’s always personal. Even for those who have no actual personal rancor for the object of hatred, there is still a motivation of gaining personal power or status via participation in the movement. The difference becomes obvious when the movement collapses: those without personal hate find another cause, while those who are emotionally invested continue on as before.
Well, I don’t have a good quantitative way to measure “true fanatical hatred.” It sounds like something that would have to be diagnosed by a psychologist or perhaps an anthropologist.
I am confident that humans have a huge capacity for group-based violence. Humans really like splitting up into little tribes and fighting tribe-versus-tribe. I would argue that a lot of fanatical crusades to exterminate the Other are rooted in this evolutionarily hard-wired desire for tribal warfare.
It would be interesting to test fanatics “when the movement collapses,” and see if the fanatics who keep their hatred are motivated by nurture (personal reaction formation) or nature (genetically dictated psychopathic tendencies). Or perhaps only people with psychopathic tendencies bury their urges and produce extreme reaction formations.
I’m just glad to find out there’s a name for this sort of thing.
Cameron is no longer on the run. He was caught recently. I thought it was awfully sporting of law enforcement to give him a four day headstart before reporting his escape to the public
The story is dated today, but posted last night. Synchronicity! That’s one more item for Saturday’s TW3. Thank you!
Nick,
I think that perhaps they were auditioning him for an appearance on the new reality show, “The Running Man.” But as in other cases with video recorders and law enforcement, the recorders “weren’t working.” Shucks.
Um, the Stephen King Running Man, not the Ahnold Running Man.
It will not surprise me if Rick Santorum eventually gets caught with a male escort or doing something unsavory in a men’s restroom.
I think it’s a general rule that people look to govt to solve the problems they see around them and indulge in. So cultural conservatives come from state with the highest tean pregnancy rates and divorce rates. And the biggest bastions of economic liberalism are some of the most exploitive industries in the nation like academia and entertainment.
Brain and Brain! What is brain?
There was actually a time when some moral crusader getting caught doing that thing he had always preached against would surprise me.
Our Id seems to be potent nutrient for making Cthonic horrors, doesn’t it?
One has to question the effectiveness of repression on an innate desire, yes?
It would be interesting to see wether it’s an effective psychological tactic for some people, or wether there are issues that linger unresolved.
I know some people repress issues of suffered psychological injury, but that’s an orange, not an apple.
So many exacerbating factors conjoined in that young woman’s tragic death : a persuasive cult leader with dark psychology and fear of legal and religious censure, religious fanaticism with antihomosexual rhetoric, Texas (need one say more?) and followers willing to do basically anything, motivated by sex and shame. A negative Perfect Storm.