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Chris DeAdana

May 11, 2026

77:00
Okay, what about reaction formation? Chris, talk to us about reaction formation.
77:06
Yeah.
77:07
Well, reaction formation is when someone is dealing with an emotion unconsciously that might feel threatening to their self-image or to an important relationship, and they turn it into the opposite feeling, right? So probably like a classic example would be someone ha- harboring a lot of anger and resentment towards a coworker, right? Kind of undealt with, disavowed underneath the surface.
77:37
But on the surface it looks, um, extremely kind, like overly accommodating, right? So almost to the point where it feels fake.
77:48
I was even thinking about, you know, a, a recent client that I had and just the...
77:56
That when they first came in, they were describing their marriage, right? And it almost seemed too good to be true, right? It's like everything they said about their spouse wa- e- everything was perfect, right? And so it put me in a weird position where I'm thinking like, "This doesn't seem...
78:10
Something doesn't feel right here," right? So this is like the classic, um, alarm that reaction formation is present when things just feel too good to be true.
79:10
It can swing the other direction sometimes, right? Where it can go from hundred percent love to a hundred percent hate.

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