As most of Freudian theories are difficult or impossible to refute, scientists see little importance of the theories when describing human's behaviors or thoughts. However, it is irrefutable that Freud is one of the most influential people in the field of psychology. His suggestion of the existence of unconscious state was so fascinating that many people were attracted and especially popular culture seems to love explaining people's deep, inner need or desire by using Freudian theories. Freudian Defense Mechanism is one of the most popular theories and I'd like to suggest one example of them in real world.
Ted Arthur Haggard is an American evangelical pastor and he was the founder and former pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was also the founder of the Association of Life-Giving Churches and leader of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). His career tells you how he was an active, influential person in the religious world. However, in November 2006, escort and masseur Mike Jones insisted that he had paid him to engage in sex with him for three years! The reason why Jones decided to reveal this was because Haggard publicly condemned homosexual, while he was engaging sexual relation with him at the same time.
This kind of case is not the only one. We often see a conservative politician, who assails homosexuality openly, being involved in gay scandal. A Freudian would explain this by adopting Reaction-formation, transforming an anxiety-producing experience into its opposite. People, who reproach homosexuality so badly that seem to be a homophobia, are actually experiencing sexual desire toward homosexuals but transforming the desire into opposite feelings, because they are afraid that their unconscious desire would not be accepted in the society.
