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Idealization and devaluation

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In psychoanalytic theory, when an individual is unable to integrate difficult feelings towards an ambivalent object (internal or external) , specific defenses are mobilized to overcome what the individual perceives as an unbearable situation. The defense mechanism that helps in this process is called splitting. Splitting is the tendency to view events or people as either all bad or all good.[1].

  • When viewing people as all good, the individual is said to be using idealization: a mental mechanism in which the person attributes exaggeratedly positive qualities to the self or others.


In idealization there is not only the construction of the ideal perfect object but the subsequent reification of the idea [2].

This process leads to the denial of the negative aspects of the object and can lead to an emotional dependence on the idealized person and, if extensively used, underpins the development of dependency as a personality trait and dependent personality disorder

As Rycroft points out

Idealization is a defence against the consequences of recognizing ambivalence and purchases freedom from guilt and depression at the loss of self esteem. Failure of the defeence leads to disillusion and depression.

In its more general meaning of an "overvalued view of others", projection is the more dominant defence mechanism.


In child developmentEdit


Freud Edit


Kohut Edit


Kernberg Edit


See alsoEdit


  2. Rycroft, C. (1995). Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. London:Penguin
  6. Corbett, L. (1989). Kohut and Jung A Comparison of Theory and Therapy
  7. Newirth, J.W. (1987). Idealization and Interpretation. Contemporary Psychoanalysis 23, 239-243.

Further readingEdit

Key textsEdit



Rycroft, C. (1955). On idealization, illusion and catastrophic disillusion. In Imagination and Reality. Hogarth Press:London. (1968)

Additional materialEdit



External linksEdit


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