2. Sour Grapes and Sweet Lemons
People have belief and people are afraid of changes. When a belief that have sunken deep in a
person is challenged with a contradictory or inconsistent belief, people suffer from cognitive
dissonance, a psychological discomfort. There are two response to this dilemma - adopt his old
belief, which is difficult or maintain his status quo by rationalization, which is much easier.
Whenever we have an important assignment or project, we can always see a common
phenomenon. “It is only 20 marks. No need to be so hardcore.” “It’s because he got on the
lecturer’s good book.” ‘Sour grapes’, an ego defense of rationalization to justify one’s belief.
After getting our result, we see another common phenomenon. “I was actually expecting a C,
turns out I got a B.” “I didn’t really study much.” ‘Sweet lemons’, an ego defense of
rationalization to beautify an undesirable outcome. These are a kind of psychology defense
mechanism that is induced so that we reach a psychological equilibrium. It does not pose any
problem itself but if we get used to it, there might be adverse effects. After all, there mechanisms
twist the fact to suit our belief. We might succumb to failure and temptation too easily and never
push ourselves enough. We might become the figure of conceit in others’ eyes and affect our
relationship with others
Famous psychologist Sigmund Freud once told his daughter “I felt that, for the past two years,
you have been worried that you are no pretty enough that you can’t get married. I don’t care. In
my eyes, you’re beautiful.” She replied: “But you can’t marry me, Dad. You’re already married.”
In this conversation, Sigmund tried to comfort her daughter using the ‘sweet lemons’. His
daughter did not give in and deny the truth; instead, she used humor to break the awkward
atmosphere brought by his comfort. This is an example of good psychological self-defense. His
daughter, Anna Freud, later became an important psychologist and summarized the ego defense
mechanism in her book The Ego and The Mechanism of Defense.
