Rationalization: what it is and how it influences our thinking

Nobody is perfect, despite the fact that it costs us to assume it. Sometimes we screw up or we don't get things done right, something totally normal naturally, but which is hard to assume.

On many occasions, far from accepting that perhaps we did not put all the effort that we could have invested or that we did not we had the necessary skills, we prefer to say that it was either because of other people's fault or that we had bad lucky... And we believe it!

Searching for logical but not true explanations for our actions and those of others has a name: rationalization. Next we will see what this curious and common defense mechanism consists of.

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What is rationalization?

Many times dealing with our daily lives can cause us tension and, even, fitting in with certain realities can overwhelm our psychological resources. These situations can be especially threatening to our “ego” and, to avoid it, we put several defense mechanisms with the intention of maintaining our psychological balance and avoiding any type of disturbance. Among these mechanisms, one of the most widespread is that of rationalization.

In psychoanalysis, rationalization, also known as intellectualization, is the defense mechanism that consists of use rational explanations, valid or not, to hide the motives behind a behavior from themselves and others. That is, it consists of justifying actions both ours and others in such a way that they avoid censorship, giving a logical explanation to our feelings, thoughts or behaviors. If we had to give this mechanism a motto it would be "that's not my fault because ..."

Human beings are not perfect and within this imperfection we are not able to accept this reality. That is why people provide us with apparently logical reasons in order to justify our setbacks and defects. We rationalize when we try to defend ourselves from the frustrating effect of our actions and we try to convince ourselves that it was either due to something unrelated to we or, if we have tried to achieve something but have not been successful in our task, we convince ourselves that we did not really want it so much.

Examples of rationalization

An example of rationalization can be found in the fable of the fox and the grape.. The fox sees a bunch of grapes on a very tall vine and she craves them, meaning to jump to see if you can reach them. Unfortunately for her, she cannot jump high enough to reach the sweet fruit and exclaims "Ah, they are green!" and she stops jumping. Yes, it is true, they are green and this appreciation is true, however the real reason why she gives up her attempt is because she does not she manages to jump high enough, but if she accepts this weakness she would feel frustration at not being able to achieve what she has proposed.

Another example, in this case more applicable to life itself, is the situation in which many workers and students live from having to turn in a job but not getting it on time. Far from acknowledging that it was because they did not dedicate enough time or were not constant, they begin to come up with all kinds of arguments to justify not meeting the deadlines. Cognitively it is much easier to accept that they did not deliver things on time because just one day the computer was slow or because they could not do their part because the other members of the work team did not do their parts to weather.

We could also take as an example that of a person who has proposed to go for a run every morning but is not complying with it. Far from recognizing that it is because he falls asleep or that he is lazy, he looks for logical arguments that are still excuses such as that he does not have the right footwear, for The mornings are too cold and if he sweats he will catch a cold or if something happens to him he will not be able to receive help from anyone because at that time there is hardly anyone walking.

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Rationalization and psychopathology

Rationalization is a psychodynamic concept and, as such, it is inevitable to relate it to psychopathology from that perspective. This does not mean that people without psychological disorders do not rationalize or intellectualize our actions or that, if we do, we have a problem. It is totally normal that when we do something wrong or we do not achieve what we wanted, it is logical and even healthy to throw balls out, saying that we have actually had bad luck or that it is because of what others have done, although the ideal is to recognize where we have failed to improve and achieve it next time time.

From Freudian psychoanalysis, rationalization is considered to be something typical of neurotic personalities. It is also related to people with very sensitive egos, in the sense that their weaknesses and that if this were the case they would feel a very high frustration and a great loss of self-esteem. In both cases, making rational excuses is so easy for them that they don't even realize they're doing it.

As we said, it is normal to rationalize our behaviors. However, this will be a cause for concern when we are constantly applying this mechanism, looking for "rational" explanations. but not real to what has not gone well for us instead of going directly to the root of the problem, our possible failures, and trying to to get better. What determines that this mechanism is a sign of disorder is the rigidity with which it manifests itself and its duration over time..

Rationalization is certainly a curious mechanism, since when we apply it to ourselves we are not aware that we are applying it. That is to say, people do not consciously deceive ourselves, but what happens is that a set of biased perceptions of reality act causing us to create our own story. For this reason, when a therapist or another person tries to confront patients who constantly apply this mechanism to the reality of their actions, they often deny them on many occasions.

As a final clarification at this point, we should not confuse rationalizing with reasoning about our behavior. Rationalization does not have to restrict our self-knowledge or our potential, that is, being aware of what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are.

Reasoning is often the step that comes after rationalizing, since once we have looked for a "logical" explanation for our behavior and after a while, we realize that it is actually because we did things wrong or lacked a bit of skill. Likewise, to avoid rationalizing it is necessary to do an exercise of deep acceptance, to recognize that we are not perfect human beings so any error or ignorance only indicates that we should try a little more.

Bibliographic references:

• McLeod, S. TO. (2019). Defense mechanisms. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.html
• McLaughlin, Brian P.; Rorty, Amélie, eds. (1988). Perspectives on Self-deception. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520061231.