A response to Kyle Arnold's "intellectualization and its lookalikes": contributions from the empirical literature

In this article, we provide a response to Kyle Arnold's paper, "Intellectualization and Its Lookalikes." We provide a general review of the empirical literature on the study of the defense of intellectualization. We highlight the paucity of empirical findings on this topic, though note that the extant findings do provide some support for the utility of assessing intellectualization. We note how the concept of interrater reliability is an important part of any study of intellectualization, albeit empirically or clinically. We conclude that assessing the entire range of a patient's defenses can be most helpful in understanding his or her level of functioning.