MECHANISMS OF DEFENSE IN FORMATION OF THE BODILY EGO OF ADOLESCENTS WITH SCOLIOSIS: PSYCHOANALYTIC REFLECTIONS TO THE EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/upj/2023-2-3Keywords:
Ego, bodily Ego, unconsciousness, Ego-defenses, scoliosis, psychoanalysis, adolescentAbstract
Adolescence is a critical period of personality development during which issues related to the exploration of one's own body experience and its drives. Because of this it is needed to reactivate, reassess and involve new mechanisms of defense, if needed. In situations of physical illness and social stigmatization, this process becomes more complex and gets some specific characteristics. The aim of this study is to present the results of an empirical research into the influence of psychological defense mechanisms on formation of the bodily Ego in adolescents with scoliosis, and to discuss these findings within the psychoanalytic approach. The empirical study revealed that psychological defense mechanisms affect each of the three aspects of the bodily Ego in adolescents: visual, verbal, and emotional-relational. In the visual aspect, predictors were found for the indicator "Landscape paper orientation". Among the identified direct predictors were undoing, splitting, somatization, and isolation; among the inverted – reactive formation, passive aggression, acting-out, idealization, denial. In the verbal aspect we found predictors for two indicators: "Negative attitude toward the body" and "Negative context of the text". Direct predictors of the first indicator were autistic fantasy and denial; autistic fantasy is also a direct predictor of the second predictor. In the emotionalrelational aspect of the bodily Ego, predictors of three indicators were found: "health I currently have", "body I currently have" and "body I can get in the future". Direct predictors of the first one were passive aggression, devaluation, dissociation; reversed - rationalization and somatization. The direct predictors of the second one were reactive formation and devaluation, and the reverse was sublimation. Reactive formation became a direct predictor of the third indicator too. At the same time, the impact of mechanisms of defense only on the visual aspect of the body Ego of adolescents with scoliosis was found: the indicators "Presence of the whole body" and "Landscape paper orientation". Displacement was a direct predictor of the first, and acting-out was a reverse predictor for both indicators. Consequently, in comparison with the control group, adolescents in the experimental group exhibit indirect signs of a more infantile perception and treatment of their own embodiment at the level of ego defenses due to a low quantity and maturity of their engagement. In the context of psychoanalytic theories, we interpret these findings as follows: (a) given that the specialized educational institution, by its name and focus, constantly signifies the physical defect of these adolescents, encountering their own symbolic castration, as occurs with their healthy peers, becomes complicated; instead, the adolescent is "haunted" by what seems to be an actual bodily castration, defense against which is either impossible or complicated. Such circumstances might provide additional ground for sustaining castration anxiety; (b) the intensity of engaging the seeing (scopic) drive, coupled with dissatisfaction with the content of the acquired sight, can lead to conflictual tension and manifest difficulties in engaging other defenses besides acting out and displacement; (c) scoliosis, apart from its purely physical aspect, occupies a verbal or, in other words, symbolic space, constantly exploited by the corresponding environment and subjugating the imaginary space.
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