Self-constancy

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Self-constancy, also called self-object constancy and self-consistency, is a psychological concept of developmental cognitive ability. The theory was developed by Prescott Lecky in the 1920s, [1] and the term "self-constancy" was coined by Heinz Hartmann in 1952. Self-constancy focuses on the regulation of thoughts and ideas, which generally develop from childhood. [2] The constancy of ideas and the representation of the self are both essential for an average person. [3] Self-constancy organizes an individual's thoughts and behavior to maintain consistency. Self-constancy relates to the development and success of interpersonal relationships, and defective self-consistency can sometimes result in borderline personality disorder. [4]

Contents

Background

Self-constancy describes the ability to hold images of oneself and another person as both positive and negative at the same time. Another way it is defined is the capacity to accept the advantages and disadvantages of both the other and oneself; by either definition, maintained self-constancy is considered a byproduct of maturity. [5]

According to Freudian theories, the lack of this ability can cause the Ego to split into all-positive and all-negative. 'Splitting of the Ego' makes it impossible to view the other and oneself as both positive and negative at the same time. This results in the other or oneself feeling positive at one moment, and suddenly experiencing negative emotions when faced with disappointment. [6] [7] In relationships, it manifests in oneself or the other as being wonderful in one moment, and then terrible in the next moment. Splitting weakens the ability to hold these concepts as opposites. Holding arguments with the opposites at the same time is the ability to have self-constancy. [8]

Children having fun on a bus Jeepney with children Samar.jpg
Children having fun on a bus

Development in childhood

Self-constancy is an important step in childhood cognitive and libidinal development. It is based on object relations theory, a branch of psychoanalysis that focuses on family relationships; the link between childhood and adulthood. Many psychologists agree that self-constancy is the stage of development when a child develops libidinal and cognitive attachment to the mother. [9]

According to Piaget's theory, self-object constancy is one part of the sensorimotor stage of childhood development. This stage starts at birth and ends around age two. During this period, a child's view of the world broadens drastically. The child learns to see the world and other people as an extension of itself and develops the understanding that objects can and do exist outside of itself. Psychoanalyst and clinical researcher Margaret Mahler defines self-constancy as a child's ability to be independent of its mother for increasing periods of time. This ability emerges because of an increasingly stable inner representation of the self. [10] [ clarification needed ]

If a child's primary caregiver is 'strong', the child will be less likely to have self-object constancy issues as an adult. [11] Adults without self-constancy issues understand that circumstances, such as separation or conflict, do not cause a significant other to abandon or reject them, and will be more likely to successfully maintain a monogamous relationship as a result. These mutually satisfying bonds benefit not only an individual's partner, but also their friends, colleagues, and extended family. [10] [12]

On the other hand, childhood disruption of the sense that relationships are reliable, stable, and consistent will likely leave traces during adulthood. [1] In adulthood, self-constancy allows individuals to implicitly trust people who are close to them, regardless of external pressures. [4]

Related Research Articles

Transactional analysis (TA) is a psychoanalytic theory and method of therapy wherein social interactions are analyzed to determine the ego state of the communicator as a basis for understanding behavior. In transactional analysis, the communicator is taught to alter the ego state as a way to solve emotional problems. The method deviates from Freudian psychoanalysis which focuses on increasing awareness of the contents of subconsciously held ideas. Eric Berne developed the concept and paradigm of transactional analysis in the late 1950s.

Stockholm syndrome Psychological condition

Stockholm syndrome is a condition in which hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors during captivity. Stockholm Syndrome results from a rather specific set of circumstances, namely the power imbalances contained in hostage-taking, kidnapping, and abusive relationships. Therefore, it is difficult to find a large number of people who experience Stockholm Syndrome to conduct studies with any sort of power. This makes it hard to determine trends in the development and effects of the condition.

Index of psychology articles Wikipedia list article

Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally, in addition or opposition to employing the scientific method, it also relies on symbolic interpretation and critical analysis, although these traditions have tended to be less pronounced than in other social sciences, such as sociology. Psychologists study phenomena such as perception, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Some, especially depth psychologists, also study the unconscious mind.

A love–hate relationship is an interpersonal relationship involving simultaneous or alternating emotions of love and hate—something particularly common when emotions are intense.

Defence mechanism Unconscious psychological mechanism that reduces anxiety arising from unacceptable or potentially harmful stimuli

In psychoanalytic theory, a defence mechanism, is an unconscious psychological operation that functions to protect a person from anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings related to internal conflicts and outer stressors.

Mirror stage

The mirror stage is a concept in the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. The mirror stage is based on the belief that infants recognize themselves in a mirror (literal) or other symbolic contraption which induces apperception from the age of about six months.

Object relations theory

Object relations theory in psychoanalytic psychology is the process of developing a psyche in relation to others in the childhood environment. It designates theories or aspects of theories that are concerned with the exploration of relationships between real and external people as well as internal images and the relations found in them. It maintains that the infant's relationship with the mother primarily determines the formation of its personality in adult life. Particularly, the need for attachment is the bedrock of the development of the self or the psychic organization that creates the sense of identity.

Otto F. Kernberg

Otto Friedmann Kernberg is a psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is most widely known for his psychoanalytic theories on borderline personality organization and narcissistic pathology. In addition, his work has been central in integrating postwar ego psychology with Kleinian and other object relations perspectives. His integrative writings were central to the development of modern object relations, a theory of mind that is perhaps the theory most widely accepted among modern psychoanalysts.

Psychosexual development Freudian psychology

In Freudian psychology, psychosexual development is a central element of the psychoanalytic sexual drive theory. Freud believed that personality developed through a series of childhood stages in which pleasure seeking energies from the id became focused on certain erogenous areas. An erogenous zone is characterized as an area of the body that is particularly sensitive to stimulation. The five psychosexual stages are the oral, the anal, the phallic, the latent, and the genital. The erogenous zone associated with each stage serves as a source of pleasure. Being unsatisfied at any particular stage can result in fixation. On the other hand, being satisfied can result in a healthy personality. Sigmund Freud proposed that if the child experienced frustration at any of the psychosexual developmental stages, they would experience anxiety that would persist into adulthood as a neurosis, a functional mental disorder.

Ego psychology

Ego psychology is a school of psychoanalysis rooted in Sigmund Freud's structural id-ego-superego model of the mind.

Ronald Fairbairn Scottish psychiatrist and psychoanalyst

William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn FRSE was a Scottish psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and a central figure in the development of the Object Relations Theory of psychoanalysis.

Splitting is the failure in a person's thinking to bring together the dichotomy of both positive and negative qualities of the self and others into a cohesive, realistic whole. It is a common defense mechanism. The individual tends to think in extremes.

Love and hate as co-existing forces have been thoroughly explored within the literature of psychoanalysis, building on awareness of their co-existence in Western culture reaching back to the “odi et amo” of Catullus, and Plato's Symposium.

Psychoanalytic theory posits that an individual unable to integrate difficult feelings mobilizes specific defenses to overcome these feelings, which the individual perceives to be unbearable. The defense that effects this process is called splitting. Splitting is the tendency to view events or people as either all bad or all good. When viewing people as all good, the individual is said to be using the defense mechanism idealization: a mental mechanism in which the person attributes exaggeratedly positive qualities to the self or others. When viewing people as all bad, the individual employs devaluation: attributing exaggeratedly negative qualities to the self or others.

Transference focused psychotherapy (TFP) is a highly structured, twice-weekly modified psychodynamic treatment based on Otto F. Kernberg's object relations model of borderline personality disorder. It views the individual with borderline personality organization (BPO) as holding unreconciled and contradictory internalized representations of self and significant others that are affectively charged. The defense against these contradictory internalized object relations leads to disturbed relationships with others and with self. The distorted perceptions of self, others, and associated affects are the focus of treatment as they emerge in the relationship with the therapist (transference). The treatment focuses on the integration of split off parts of self and object representations, and the consistent interpretation of these distorted perceptions is considered the mechanism of change.

The concept of excessive selfishness has been recognized throughout history. The term "narcissism" is derived from the Greek mythology of Narcissus, but was only coined at the close of the nineteenth century.

Schema therapy was developed by Jeffrey E. Young for use in treatment of personality disorders and chronic DSM Axis I disorders, such as when patients fail to respond or relapse after having been through other therapies. Schema therapy is an integrative psychotherapy combining theory and techniques from previously existing therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalytic object relations theory, attachment theory, and Gestalt therapy.

Healthy narcissism is a positive sense of self that is in alignment with the greater good. The concept of healthy narcissism was first coined by Paul Federn and gained prominence in the 1970s through the research of Heinz Kohut and Otto Kernberg. It developed slowly out of the psychoanalytic tradition, and became popular in the late twentieth century.

Narcissistic defenses are those processes whereby the idealized aspects of the self are preserved, and its limitations denied. They tend to be rigid and totalistic. They are often driven by feelings of shame and guilt, conscious or unconscious.

Sidney J. Blatt was a professor emeritus of psychiatry and psychology at Yale University's Department of psychiatry. Blatt was a psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist, empirical researcher and personality theoretician, who made enormous contributions to the understanding of personality development and psychopathology. His wide-ranging areas of scholarship and expertise included clinical assessment, psychoanalysis, cognitive schemas, mental representation, psychopathology, depression, schizophrenia, and the therapeutic process, as well as the history of art. During a long and productive academic career, Blatt published 16 books and nearly 250 articles and developed several extensively used assessment procedures. Blatt died on May 11, 2014, in Hamden, Conn. He was 85.

References

  1. 1 2 Maj, Mario (2005). Personality disorders. ISBN   9780470090367 . Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  2. ↑ "Overview | Borderline personality disorder: recognition and management | Guidance". National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  3. ↑ Demo, David H. (1992). "The Self-Concept Over Time: Research Issues and Directions". Annual Review of Sociology. 18: 303–326. doi:10.1146/annurev.so.18.080192.001511. ISSN   0360-0572. JSTOR   2083456.
  4. 1 2 Formica, Michael (May 31, 2008). "Understanding Constancy in Relationship". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  5. ↑ Lo, Imi (October 8, 2018). "Object Constancy: Understanding the Fear of Abandonment and Borderline Personality Disorder, (ABPD)". Psych Central. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  6. ↑ Sklar, Jon (January 1, 1986). "Splitting of the ego". Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. 2 (1): 23–30. doi:10.1080/02668738600700031. ISSN   0266-8734.
  7. ↑ National Education Alliance (February 10, 2013). "What Is BPD | Borderline Personality Disorder". Archived from the original on February 10, 2013. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  8. ↑ Mayo Clinic (n.d.). "Borderline personality disorder - Symptoms and causes". Mayo Clinic. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  9. ↑ Vaknin, Sam (July 3, 2018). "The Narcissist's Object Constancy | HealthyPlace". www.healthyplace.com. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  10. 1 2 McDevitt, John (1975). "Separation-Individuation and Object Constancy". Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. 23 (4): 713–742. doi:10.1177/000306517502300402. ISSN   0003-0651. PMID   1194626. S2CID   42598357.
  11. ↑ Blom, Dirk (December 8, 2009). A Dictionary of Hallucinations. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN   9781441912237.
  12. ↑ Skip, Johnson (September 26, 2018). "Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder". Borderline Personality Disorder. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
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