Seonglae Cho주지화
The ego regulates or minimizes uncomfortable emotions by thinking about them in an overly abstract or intellectualized way.
For example, a thief disguised as a delivery driver breaks into the house, injures the mother, and steals all the valuables. When the father comes home and sees what happened, he acts almost like a forensic investigator or detective: instead of responding emotionally to the mother, who is groaning in pain, he asks whether the door was properly locked, what kind of uniform the delivery driver was wearing, and starts compiling a list of stolen items to give to the police.
In this situation, he blocks off his emotions in advance because he fears that expressing anger might overwhelm him, and instead relies on the defense mechanism of intellectualization, causing his rational mind to operate excessively.