Intellectualization
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.
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.
This is one of my favorite personal psychological coping mechanisms, and I have recently employed it. However, I consciously knew I was doing it, and I was partly doing it just to get a reaction out of a friend who was bothering me. Well, I got the reaction I was looking for (she didn’t like it and was worried about me when I got all “logical”), so I ceased the behavior.
I was surprised at how easy it was to enter into the logical persona. I had done it previously in my life, addressing my parents by their family titles Mother and Father. It felt like I was stepping into a pair of old shoes, familiar and comfortable. The intellectualization persona really did make me feel the absence of conflict; it did make certain things a lot easier. It is a double-edged sword, of course. I do not feel loneliness in this state, but I also do not feel happiness. It really felt as though I had a mental re-wiring when in this state. Things were not judged on how good or bad they make me feel. Accurate communication was a means to efficiently achieving goals.
I have ceased the intellectualization coping method of my own accord for now. I can see myself resorting to it in the future though, in dire emotional need. Hopefully, I won’t have to = )
(Source: changingminds.org)
