Vernor doesn’t give the professor an apple because he dislikes the professor per se, but because he feels guilty about his dislike for the professor, which he tries to “fix” by giving a gift—this works exactly because giving a gift usually indicates liking someone (putting aside other motives, such as ingratiation).
A different example of the “Undoing” defense mechanism would be an abusive alcoholic father who buys his kids lots of Christmas presents (see the sources here and here).
In psychoanalytic theory, these various phenomena are related in that they serve the function of protecting one’s ego. But if you think that’s a poor way of conceptualizing them, I’d be curious how you think we could do better.
Edit: For example, gworley’s comment conceptualizes them as defending one’s prior probability.
Vernor doesn’t give the professor an apple because he dislikes the professor per se, but because he feels guilty about his dislike for the professor, which he tries to “fix” by giving a gift—this works exactly because giving a gift usually indicates liking someone (putting aside other motives, such as ingratiation).
A different example of the “Undoing” defense mechanism would be an abusive alcoholic father who buys his kids lots of Christmas presents (see the sources here and here).
In psychoanalytic theory, these various phenomena are related in that they serve the function of protecting one’s ego. But if you think that’s a poor way of conceptualizing them, I’d be curious how you think we could do better.
Edit: For example, gworley’s comment conceptualizes them as defending one’s prior probability.