A psychological process where someone deliberately adopts characteristics or behaviors that are opposite to those of a significant figure in their life, often as a form of rebellion or differentiation. It's a reactive way of forming identity by defining oneself in opposition to others.
Formed by combining 'counter-' (against or opposite) with 'identification,' this term emerged in psychoanalytic literature in the mid-20th century. It describes how people sometimes form identity not by modeling themselves after others, but by consciously becoming their opposite.
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