How Is Depreciation Different From Rationalization?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-12 20:57

Any psychological defense performs the function of preventing the loss of self-esteem. That is, a person develops certain thought forms and reactions in order to protect a positive, consistent self-image.

When defenses are applied consciously and do not affect the personality of others, are not dysfunctional, there is nothing wrong with them.

However, quite often, protection serves as a shield that separates a person from connection with reality and destabilizes relations with others, and then his own emotional state.

This article is written with the aim of analyzing what is the difference between the psychological defenses of "rationalization" and "devaluation", tk. it happens that they are confused.

Rationalization - this is an attempt to give plausible motivation to your actions, to justify failure, to explain to yourself what is happening in such a way that it would not be excruciatingly painful.

Example of rationalization: a person justifies his obsession with the fact that he shows care and attention. In this case, a substitution of concepts occurs, moreover, such self-justification prevents him from looking deep into himself and understanding the true motivation of his actions (for example, that he is guided by the fear of losing control over another / over his emotions).

Rationalization as a psychological defense has little to do with objective reality.

In open sources, I. Krylov's fable "The Fox and the Grapes" is cited as an example of rationalization. The fox explains his failure in attempts to feast on grapes by the fact that the grapes are still green. This type of reaction can indicate a strong frustrating effect of not achieving the goal. You can reduce the degree of this influence by convincing yourself that the goal is not so desirable.

Depreciation is a demonstration of the unreasonable superiority of one's own values over the values of others.

Values are what is significant for a person (his beliefs, his opinion, attitude to some life phenomena, his actions, the sphere of his needs, interests).

By devaluing, a person tries to feel more significant by treating his own values as superior in importance to the values of other people.

Devaluation is multifunctional; it performs the functions of control, a stabilizer of personal beliefs, an increase in self-esteem, a response to negative emotions, and a number of others.

Examples of Devaluating Behavior … A friend communicates with you from the standpoint of moralizing, calls you unlucky, thus devaluing your beliefs, your way of life. Although, in fact, your life is no worse. One client gave an example of how a man she knew began to convince her that a woman could not earn much, and then even called such a woman a prostitute. Here the devaluation has already taken the form of an insult. The wife tells her husband that he does absolutely nothing for her, citing as an argument the refusal to buy her a fur coat, but completely crossing out all his past actions. Thus, she devalues all the actions of her husband that have no value for her at the moment, putting her desires above his capabilities

Devaluation can take the form of a derogatory, condescending attitude, denial of your merits, demonstration of superiority, both material and moral, comparing you to others not in your favor, unreasonable condemnation of your interests, views, occupation, social circle, attempts to undermine your self-confidence …

It is important in the early stages to recognize attempts at depreciation, since this style of communication has a destabilizing effect on the psyche and the quality of relationships.

Let me summarize. In my opinion, we can talk about depreciation if others touch our values in a negative way.

If we go back to the fable "The Fox and the Grapes", was it about values? Was grapes valuable to the fox? She just saw the grapes and wanted to taste them. Instead of grapes, there could be something else: fish, bird, hare, etc. That is, grapes for the fox are not a value, but a desire.

The grape cannot be viewed as a person, so it is unlikely to feel devalued.

If we consider the fable as a metaphor for human relations, then the words of the fox can definitely be called devaluation.

For example, a client comes to a psychologist and says that he wants to get a result quickly. The psychologist understands that the stated request cannot be resolved in a short time and informs the client about it, in response to which he hears: "Your office with certificates looks beautiful, but as a psychologist you are absolutely inconsistent."

In this case, the client's statement would definitely be a depreciation, since firstly, it is not justified, and secondly, it affects the personality of a specialist and the sphere of his values, violates his boundaries.

Rationalization is self-justification, justification of the correctness of one's actions, which happened without directly affecting the value system of other people.

For example, a person can justify his unwillingness or fear to go to a psychologist by the fact that all psychologists are swindlers.

This is how I saw the difference. I would be glad if you share your observations!

* Artist: Christian Schloe.

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