Dynamic (psychodynamic) psychotherapy is also known as psychoanalytic psychotherapy, insight-oriented therapy, exploratory psychotherapy. The basis of the psychodynamic trend in psychotherapy is to achieve an understanding of the dynamics of the individual's mental life, based on the concept of the unconscious.

Any approach in psychoanalytic psychotherapy is based on the client's gradual awareness of previously unconscious problems and conflicts. Painful symptoms, in turn, are seen as an unconscious expression of the client's hidden conflicts. The process of understanding the hidden mechanisms of the development of the disease leads to profound personal changes and gradually smooths out painful symptoms. Most psychodynamic approaches are long term.

The psychodynamic approach originates from classical psychoanalysis (Freud - Freud S.). The most famous are:

Analytical Psychology (Jung - Jung C. G.)

Individual psychology (Adler - Adler A.)

Volitional Therapy Rank (Rank O.)

Stekel's Active Analytic Therapy

Sullivan's interpersonal psychotherapy (Sullivan H. S.)

Intensive psychotherapy FrommReichmann (FrommReichmann F.)

Characterological analysis of Horney (Horney K.)

Humanistic psychoanalysis (Fromm - Fromm E.)

Egoanalysis Klein (M. Klein)

Chicago School (Alexander - Alexander F. G., French - French T. M.)

Deutsch sector therapy (Deutsch F.), objective psychotherapy according to Karpman (Karpman V.)

Short-term psychotherapy (Sifneos - Sifneos P. E., Malan - Malan D. N., Bellak - Bellak A. S.)

Mayer's Psychobiological Therapy (Meyer A.)

Biodynamic concept of Masserman (Masserman J. H.)

Adaptive psychodynamics Rado (Rado S.)

Hypnoanalysis (Wolberg - Wolberg L. R.)

and some others

According to the psychodynamic approach, the determining factor in understanding the nature of man and his diseases is that all mental phenomena are the result of the interaction and struggle of intrapsychic forces. In accordance with the theory of conflict of instincts, Freud described the main forces in this struggle that are involved in the origin of neuroses: "Man falls ill as a result of an intrapsychic conflict between the demands of instinctive life and resistance to them." He considered the etiology of neuroses to be sexual in nature. The psychoanalytic approach includes five fundamental principles: dynamic, economic, structural, the principle of development, the principle of adaptation.

The psychoanalytic heritage is based on these principles, for which the following provisions are the most significant:

1. Human instinctual impulses, their expression and transformation and, most importantly, their suppression, by which painful feelings or experiences of unpleasant thoughts, desires and the influence of consciousness are avoided, are of primary importance.

2. Belief that such repression is essentially sexual, that the cause of the disorder is an abnormal libidinal or psychosexual development.

3. The idea that the roots of abnormal psychosexual development are in the distant past, in childhood conflicts or traumas, especially with regard to the parental oedipal complex, expressed in the classic desire for a parent of the opposite sex

4. Confidence in resistance to the identification of the Oedipus complex, its rapid recovery

5. The idea that, in essence, we are dealing with a struggle between biological internal impulses (or instincts - Id) and the Ego acting as a defense against external reality - in the general context of moral rules or standards (SuperEgo)

6. Adherence to the concept of mental determinism, or causality, according to which mental phenomena, as well as behavior, undoubtedly do not change by chance, but are associated with events that precede them, and, if not made conscious, are involuntarily the basis for repetition

The therapeutic change and healing process in psychodynamic psychotherapy has as its ultimate goal the realization of the unconscious (if we formulate this task in the shortest possible form), and the application of this approach can be possible and useful for any person, not necessarily with any diseases.

The therapist is looking for a way for the patient to expose and resist predominantly sexual repressed content. He achieves this by slowly, painstakingly explaining and unraveling the historical (past experience) meaning of psychic phenomena and the indirect forms in which the camouflaged conflicts underlying them are expressed. Understandably, therefore, the dynamic target is sometimes significantly removed.

The dynamic approach is implemented mainly by means of verbalization, including the patient's free associations and the psychotherapist's analysis of transference and resistance reactions. Analysis as a task of the psychotherapist is facilitated by four specific procedures: confrontation, clarification (clarification), interpretation and working through. The technique of free associations from the very beginning is the main way of interaction of the psychotherapist with the "uncensored" content of the patient's psyche. It serves as the main procedure for revealing the "raw" material on which the analysis is based.

The analysis also includes the illumination of dreams, which Freud considered the "royal road to the unconscious." Confrontation is addressed to the patient's recognition of specific mental phenomena to be investigated; clarification involves putting things into "sharp focus" to separate the important aspects from the unimportant; interpretation follows the received material, defining (in interrogative form) the main meaning or cause of the event; working through is about repetition, a gradual and elaborate exploration of interpretations and resistances until the material presented is integrated into the patient's understanding.

Integrative psychotherapy Aleksandrov Artur Aleksandrovich

Psychodynamic approach

Followers of the psychodynamic approach argue that a person's thoughts, feelings and behavior are determined by unconscious mental processes. The foundations of this approach were laid by Sigmund Freud, who compared the personality of a person with an iceberg: the tip of the iceberg is consciousness, while the main mass, located under water and invisible, is the unconscious.

Personality, according to Freud, consists of three main components. The first component is the Id (it) - a reservoir of unconscious energy called libido. The id includes the basic instincts, desires and impulses with which people are born, namely: Eros - the instinct of pleasure and sex and Thanatos - the instinct of death, which can motivate aggression or destructiveness towards oneself or others. The id seeks immediate gratification, regardless of social norms or the rights and feelings of others. In other words, the Eid acts according to the pleasure principle.

The second component of personality is the ego (I). This is the mind. The ego is looking for ways to satisfy the instincts, taking into account the norms and rules of society. The ego finds compromises between the unreasonable demands of the id and the demands of the real world - it acts according to principle of reality. The ego tries to satisfy the needs while protecting the person from the physical and emotional damage that can result from awareness, not to mention the reaction of impulses emanating from the id. The ego is the executive power of the personality.

The third component of personality is the superego. This component develops in the process of education as a result of the internalization of parental and social values. Freud uses the term "introjection" for this process. The superego includes introjected values, our do's and don'ts. This is our conscience. The superego operates on the basis of moral principles, violation of its norms leads to feelings of guilt.

The clash of instincts (Id), reason (Ego) and morality (Superego) leads to the emergence of intrapsychic or psychodynamic conflicts. Personality is reflected in how a person solves the problem of a wide range of needs.

The most important function of the ego is the formation of defense mechanisms against anxiety and guilt. Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological tactics that help protect a person from unpleasant emotions - repression, projection, reaction formation, intellectualization, rationalization, denial, sublimation, etc. Neurotic anxiety, according to Freud, is a signal that unconscious impulses threaten to overcome defense mechanisms and reach consciousness.

Thanks to the action of defense mechanisms, the unconscious becomes difficult to explore, but Freud developed a method for this - psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis includes the interpretation of free associations, dreams, everyday behavior (slips of the tongue, memory errors, etc.), transference analysis.

Psychoanalysis (and any other method within the framework of the psychodynamic approach) has two main tasks:

1) to achieve in the patient awareness (insight) of the intrapsychic, or psychodynamic, conflict;

2) to work out the conflict, that is, to trace how it affects actual behavior and interpersonal relationships.

For example, psychoanalysis helps the patient to become aware of hidden, repressed feelings of anger towards the parent. This awareness is further complemented by work on getting the patient to emotionally experience and release repressed anger (catharsis). This work then helps the patient to become aware of how unconscious conflict and related defense mechanisms create interpersonal problems. Thus, the patient's hostility to the boss, senior employee or other "parental figure" may be a symbolic, unconscious reaction of children's conflicts with the parent.

Thus, the psychodynamic approach emphasizes the importance for understanding the genesis of emotional disorders and their treatment of intrapsychic conflicts, which are the result of a dynamic and often unconscious struggle within the personality of its conflicting motives.

A variety of psychodynamic psychotherapy is our domestic personality-oriented (reconstructive) psychotherapy, developed at the Psychoneurological Institute. V. M. Bekhterev, the theoretical basis of which is relationship psychology V. N. Myasishcheva. The main goal of this model is the reconstruction of the system of relations that was disturbed in the process of personality development under the influence of social factors, primarily distorted interpersonal relationships in the parental family. A disturbed system of relations does not allow a person to rationally resolve intrapsychic conflicts that arise in a difficult life situation, which leads to the emergence of neurosis. Awareness of the conflict is one of the important tasks in the process of psychotherapy.

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Psychodynamic approach of Sigmund Freud

Introduction

psychodynamic freud personality

Personality is one of the most popular categories of psychology, presenting ample opportunities for consideration from the standpoint of various theoretical approaches. The range of these approaches is extremely wide and multifaceted.

Traditionally, the problem of personality is associated with the study of its structure, processes and development. What is a personality (structure), how does a personality influence behavior (process), why does an individual have such personal characteristics (development). These questions are solved in different ways in different theoretical traditions, the most famous of which are: psychodynamic, cognitive, interactionist and constructivist, on the general characteristics of which we will dwell.

This essay will consider the psychodynamic approach to the study of the psyche - the personality, the person according to the theories of the founder of psychoanalysis, as one of the currents of the psychodynamic approach, Sigmund Freud.

1. problemsand personality in sociology

The problem of a person, personality is one of the fundamental interdisciplinary problems. Since ancient times, it has occupied the minds of representatives of various sciences. Huge theoretical and empirical material has been accumulated, but even today this problem remains the most complex, the most unknown. After all, it is not in vain that it is said that a person contains the whole world. Each person is connected by thousands of threads, visible and invisible, with the external environment, with society, outside of which he cannot form as a person. It is precisely this - the interaction of the individual and society - that sociology considers, and the relationship "society-individual" is the basic sociological relationship.

Let's turn to the concept of "personality". Personality, individual, man - these close, but not identical concepts are the object of various sciences: biology and philosophy, anthropology and sociology, psychology and pedagogy. Man is considered as a species representing the highest stage of the evolution of life on Earth, as a complex system in which biological and social are combined, i.e. as a biosocial being. Each single, concrete person is an individual, he is unique; hence, when they talk about individuality, they emphasize precisely this originality, uniqueness.

The peculiarity of the sociological approach to man is characterized by the fact that he is studied primarily as a social being, a representative of a social community, a bearer of social qualities characteristic of it. When studying the processes of interaction between a person and the social environment, a person is considered not only as an object of external influences, but mainly as a social subject, an active participant in public life, having his own needs, interests, aspirations, as well as the ability and ability to exert his own influence on the social environment.

As you can see, sociologists are interested in the social aspects of human life, the patterns of his communication and interaction with other people, groups and society as a whole. However, the interests of sociologists are not limited to the social properties of a person. In their research, they also take into account the influence of biological, psychological and other properties.

The most common definitions of personality, as a rule, include the presence of stable qualities and properties in an individual, who is regarded as a responsible and conscious subject. But this again gives rise to questions: “Is an irresponsible or insufficiently conscious subject a person?”, “Can a two-year-old child be considered a person?”. An individual is a person when he, in interaction with society through specific social communities, groups, institutions, realizes socially significant properties, social ties. Thus, the broadest "working" definition of personality can be formulated as follows: personality is an individual included in social connections and relationships.

In everyday and scientific language, the terms “man”, “individual”, “individuality”, “personality” are very common. Most often, these words are used as synonyms, but if you approach the definition of these concepts strictly, you can find significant semantic shades. Man is the most general, generic concept. An individual is understood as a separate, specific person, as a single representative of the human race and his “first brick”. Individuality can be defined as a set of features that distinguish one individual from another, and the differences are made at various levels - biochemical, neurophysiological, psychological, social, etc. individual, i.e. the emphasis is on the social principle.

In sociology, personality is defined as:

1. The systemic quality of an individual, determined by his involvement in social relations and manifested in joint activities and communication;

2. The subject of social relations and conscious activity.

2. Psychodynamic theory of Sigmund Freud

Psychodynamic approach

One of the methods of studying personality is the psychodynamic approach or psychodynamics.

The term "psychodynamics" is usually understood as movement, unfolding, growth and decay, interaction and struggle of forces within the human psyche. Then the psychodynamic approach is an approach according to which the processes that are visible to a person, occurring in his psyche, are determined not by external circumstances, not by the mind or will of a person, but by the independent dynamics (interaction and struggle) of forces inside the psyche. The psychodynamic approach proceeds from the assumption that the human psyche has its own movements and interactions of energies that cannot be reduced to physiological or social influences.

K. Jung, A. Adler, O. Rank, G. Sullivan, K. Horney, E. Fromm and many others worked in the psychodynamic approach. Today, in practical psychology, within the framework of these approaches, there are (among the most famous schools and directions) transactional analysis, psychodrama (as its variety - systemic constellations) and body-oriented psychotherapy. The desire for superiority, an inferiority complex are also concepts of the psychodynamic approach. Domestic personality-oriented reconstructive psychotherapy based on the psychology of relations V.N. Myasishchev - a kind of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Existential-humanistic psychotherapy - similarly.

The psychodynamic approach does not always give clear answers about the causes of what is happening and the patterns of flow, we are often satisfied with general indications of the directions for the search for such mechanisms. If over and over again, sometimes in a dream, sometimes in reality, strange images and memories pop up, as if we are standing on the edge of a cliff and cannot decide to take a step forward, although we feel that we may have wings - we can assume that such pictures may be associated with such and such repressed desires. Understanding when and why you suppressed these desires and what these suppressed desires are now doing to you, you find yourself inside the psychodynamic approach.

The psychodynamic approach admits that some moments of our behavior, in principle, cannot receive simple explanations.

The dynamics of internal energies is not necessarily deep, it can lie on the surface, be elementary for understanding. “Action is equal to reaction”, “The more you push, the more resistance…”.

On the other hand, deep dynamics is not a synonym for something necessarily important and significant. During auto-training of the highest level, color discharges begin to occur in the human mind. There is some regularity in them, we can assume that this is due to the dynamics of some internal, apparently deep energies, but it is difficult to say whether this reflects something important or is only “internal noise”.

Not all dynamics dictate a person's behavior. While classical psychoanalysis describes cases where a person's behavior was tightly controlled by internal dynamics?, was a necessary consequence of internal impulses and states, in Jungianism and the humanistic approach it often turns out that despite the influence of deep dynamics, a person's external behavior may well correspond to circumstances, be socially adequate and within reasonable limits.

Why do psychologists and clients of psychologists have an interest in the dynamics of the internal energies of a person? - Oddly enough, this is not an easy question. Knowledge of laws in science makes it possible (at least theoretically) to predict the course of the processes under study, but this is practically not in demand in psychological work. Sigmund Freud and his followers believed that the client's understanding of his internal situation, his awareness of the internal conflict removes him, but this assumption was not confirmed: awareness may or may not affect what is happening inside us.

SigmundFreud

Sigmund Freud was born into a family of Galician Jews. His father, Yakov, was 41 years old and had two children from a previous marriage. Sigmund's mother, Amalia Natanson, Yakov's third wife, was 21 years old. In 1860, the Freud family moved to Vienna due to financial difficulties. At the age of 9, Freud entered the Sperl Gymnasium (high school), where he was one of the best students, and graduated with honors at the age of 17.

After graduating from the gymnasium, Freud wanted to make a military or political career, but due to anti-Semitic sentiments and financial difficulties, his ambitions were crossed out.

In the autumn of 1873, he entered the medical department of the University of Vienna. From 1876 to 1882 he worked in the psychology laboratory of Ernst Brücke, studying the histology of nerve cells. In 1881, he passed his final exams with honors and received the degree of doctor of medicine.

In March 1876, Freud, under the guidance of Professor Karl Klaus, investigated the sex life of the eel. In particular, he studied the presence of testes in the male eel. This was his first scientific work. In 1884, he invented a method of staining the nerve pathways with gold chloride, the staining method was recognized as imperfect.

In 1882, Freud began to practice medicine. Scientific interests brought him to Vienna's main hospital, where he began research at the Institute of Cerebral Anatomy. In the early 1880s. became close friends with Josef Breuer and Jean Martin Charcot, who had a huge impact on his scientific work.

Freud married Martha Bernays in 1886. Subsequently, they had six children - Mathilde (1887-1978), Jean Martin (1889-1967, named after Charcot), Oliver (1891-1969), Ernst (1892-1970), Sofia (1893-1920) and Anna ( 1895-1982). It was Anna Freud who became a follower of her father, founded child psychoanalysis, systematized and developed psychoanalytic theory, made a significant contribution to the theory and practice of psychoanalysis in her writings.

In 1891, Freud's work "On Aphasia" was published, in which he, in particular, for the first time made a reasoned criticism of the then generally accepted concept of localization of brain functions in certain centers and proposed an alternative functional-genetic approach to the study of the psyche and its physiological mechanisms. In the article "Defensive neuropsychoses" (1894) and the work "Study of hysteria" (1895, together with I. Breuer), it was evidenced that there is an inverse effect of mental pathology on physiological processes and the dependence of somatic symptoms on the emotional state of the patient.

With the beginning of the 20th century, he began to publish his main scientific works: "The Interpretation of Dreams" (1900); "Psychopathology of everyday life" (1901); "One early memory of Leonardo da Vinci" (1910); "Totem and Taboo" (1913); "Lectures on Introduction to Psychoanalysis" (1916-1917); Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920); "Psychology of the masses and the analysis of the human "I"" (1921); "I and It" (1923).

In 1923, Freud was diagnosed with cancer of the palate. The scientist underwent 33 painful operations, but continued to work until the last days of his life. Freud won the Goethe Prize in 1930.

In 1938, after the annexation of Austria to Germany (the Anschluss) and the ensuing persecution of Jews by the Nazis, Freud's position became much more complicated. After the arrest of his daughter Anna and interrogation by the Gestapo, Freud decided to leave the Third Reich. However, the authorities were in no hurry to let him out of the country. He was forced not only to sign a humiliating gratitude to the Gestapo "for a number of good offices", but also to pay the Reich government a fabulous "ransom" of 4,000 dollars for the right to leave Germany. Largely thanks to the efforts and connections of the Princess of Greece and Denmark, Marie Bonaparte - a patient and student of Freud - he managed to save his life and emigrate to London with his wife and daughter. Freud's two sisters were sent to a concentration camp, where they died in 1942.

Painfully suffering from oral cancer caused by smoking, in 1939 he asked his doctor and friend Max Schur to help him perform euthanasia, the idea of which was quite popular at that time. He gave him a triple dose of morphine, from which Freud died on September 23 at the age of 83.

Psychodynamic theorySigmund Freud

Levels of Consciousness

The mental theory of Sigmund Freud is "Psychoanalysis". The term "psychoanalysis" has three meanings: the theory of personality and psychopathology, the method of therapy for personality disorders, and the method of studying the unconscious thoughts and feelings of the individual. This connection of theory with therapy and with personality assessment pervades all aspects of Freud's ideas about human behavior. However, under all these intricacies and complexities lies a relatively small number of initial concepts and principles that reflect Freud's psychoanalytic approach to personality. Consider first his views on the organization of the psyche, which is often called Freud's "topographical model".

During a long period of development of psychoanalysis, Freud applied a topographical model of personality organization. According to this model, mental life can be divided into three levels: consciousness, preconscious and unconscious. Considering them as a unity, Freud used this "psychic map" to show the degree of consciousness of such mental phenomena as thoughts and fantasies.

The level of consciousness consists of the sensations and experiences that you are aware of at a given moment in time. For example, right now your consciousness can contain the thoughts of the authors who wrote this text, as well as a vague feeling of impending hunger. Freud insisted that only a small part of mental life (thoughts, perception, feelings, memory) enters the sphere of consciousness. Whatever is currently being experienced in the mind of a person should be seen as the result of a selective sorting process, largely regulated by external cues. Moreover, certain content is only conscious for a short period of time and then quickly sinks into the preconscious or unconscious as the person's attention shifts to other cues. Consciousness captures only a small percentage of all information stored in the brain.

The area of the preconscious, sometimes called "accessible memory," includes all experiences that are not currently conscious, but can easily return to consciousness, either spontaneously or with minimal effort. For example, you can remember everything you did last Saturday night; all the cities in which you happened to live; your favorite books or the argument you made to your friend yesterday. From Freud's point of view, the preconscious builds bridges between the conscious and unconscious areas of the psyche.

The deepest and most significant area of the human mind is the unconscious. The unconscious is the storehouse of primitive instinctive urges plus emotions and memories that are so threatening to consciousness that they have been repressed or repressed into the unconscious. Examples of what can be found in the unconscious are forgotten childhood traumas, latent hostile feelings towards a parent, and repressed sexual desires that you are not aware of. According to Freud, such unconscious material largely determines our daily functioning.

Freud was not the first to draw attention to the importance of unconscious processes in human behavior. Some philosophers of the 18th and 19th centuries assumed that the main content of the inner world was inaccessible to awareness. However, unlike his ideological predecessors, Freud gave the concept of unconscious life an empirical status. In particular, he emphasized that the unconscious should not be seen as a hypothetical abstraction, but rather as a reality that can be demonstrated and verified. Freud firmly believed that the truly significant aspects of human behavior are shaped and directed by impulses and urges that are entirely outside the sphere of consciousness. These influences are not only not recognized, but, moreover, if they begin to be recognized or openly expressed in behavior, this meets with strong internal resistance of the individual. Unconscious experiences, unlike preconscious ones, are completely inaccessible to awareness, but they largely determine the actions of people. However, unconscious material can express itself in a disguised or symbolic form, just as unconscious instinctual urges are indirectly gratified in dreams, fantasies, play and work. Freud used this insight in his work with patients.

Personality structure

The concept of unconscious mental processes was central to the early description of personality organization. However, in the early 1920s, Freud revised his conceptual model of mental life and introduced three main structures into the anatomy of personality: the id, the ego, and the superego (id, ego, superego). This tripartite division of the personality is known as the structural model of mental life, although Freud believed that these components should be considered as processes rather than as special "structures" of the personality.

It. In Freud, it denotes exclusively primitive, instinctive and innate aspects of personality. It functions entirely in the unconscious and is closely related to the instinctive biological urges (eating, sleeping, defecation, copulation) that energize our behavior. According to Freud, It is something dark, biological, chaotic, not knowing the laws, not obeying the rules. It retains its central importance for the individual throughout his life. Being primitive in its essence, it is free from any restrictions. Being the oldest initial structure of the psyche, It expresses the primary principle of all human life - the immediate discharge of psychic energy produced by biologically determined impulses (especially sexual and aggressive ones). The latter, when they are held back and do not find release, create tension in personal functioning. The immediate release of tension is called the pleasure principle. It obeys this principle, expressing itself in an impulsive, irrational and narcissistic (exaggeratedly selfish) manner, regardless of the consequences for others or in spite of self-preservation. Since the id knows no fear or anxiety, it does not resort to precautions in expressing its purpose - a fact that Freud believed could be a danger to the individual and to society. In other words, It can be compared to a blind king, whose brutal power and authority make him obey, but in order to exercise this power, he is forced to rely on his subjects.

Freud considered the id as an intermediary between somatic and mental processes in the body. Freud described two mechanisms by which the id relieves tension in the personality: reflex actions and primary processes. In the first case, the id responds automatically to excitatory signals and thus immediately relieves the tension caused by the stimulus. Examples of such innate reflex mechanisms are coughing in response to irritation of the upper respiratory tract and tears when a mote enters the eye. However, it must be recognized that reflex actions do not always reduce the level of irritation or tension. So, not a single reflex movement will enable a hungry child to get food. When the reflex action fails to reduce the tension, another function of the id, called the primary representational process, comes into play. It forms the mental image of an object originally associated with the satisfaction of a basic need. In the example of the hungry child, this process may evoke the image of a mother's breast or a bottle of milk. Other examples of the primary representational process are found in dreams, hallucinations or psychoses, and in the mental activity of newborn infants.

Primary processes are an illogical, irrational and fantasy form of human representations, characterized by an inability to suppress impulses and distinguish between real and unreal, "self" and "non-self". The tragedy of behavior in accordance with the primary process is that the individual cannot distinguish between the actual object that can satisfy the need, and its image (for example, between water and a mirage of water for a person wandering in the desert). This kind of mixing can be fatal unless some external sources of satisfaction of the need appear. Therefore, Freud argued, it is an impossible task for the infant to learn to delay the satisfaction of primary needs. The capacity for delayed gratification first occurs when young children learn that there is an outside world in addition to their own needs and desires. With the advent of this knowledge, a second structure of personality arises, I.

I am a component of the mental apparatus responsible for making decisions. The ego seeks to express and satisfy the desires of the id in accordance with the restrictions imposed by the external world. The ego receives its structure and function from the id, evolves from it and borrows part of the id's energy for its own needs in order to meet the requirements of social reality. Thus, the Self helps to ensure the safety and self-preservation of the body. In the struggle for survival against both the external social world and the instinctive needs of the id, the ego must constantly differentiate between events in the psychic plane and real events in the external world. For example, a hungry person in search of food must distinguish between the image of food that appears in the representation and the image of food in reality, if he wants to relieve tension. That is, he or she must learn how to get and consume food before the tension subsides. This goal is achieved through certain actions that enable the id to express its instinctive needs in accordance with the norms and ethics of the social world - an art not always achievable. This goal makes a person learn, think, reason, perceive, decide, remember, etc. Accordingly, the ego uses cognitive and perceptual strategies in its quest to satisfy the wants and needs of the id.

In contrast to the id, whose nature is expressed in the search for pleasure, the ego obeys the reality principle, the purpose of which is to preserve the integrity of the organism by delaying the satisfaction of instincts until the moment when the opportunity to achieve discharge in a suitable way is found and / or appropriate conditions are found in the external environment. The reality principle enables the individual to inhibit, redirect, or gradually release the gross energy of the id within the social constraints and conscience of the individual. For example, the expression of a sexual need is delayed until the appropriate object and circumstances appear. So, when the object and conditions are ideal, the pleasure principle governs behavior. The reality principle introduces a measure of reasonableness into our behavior. The ego, in contrast to the id, distinguishes between reality and fantasy, withstands moderate stress, changes depending on new experience, and participates in rational cognitive activity. Relying on the power of logical thinking, which Freud called the secondary process, I is able to direct behavior in the right direction so that instinctive needs are satisfied in a way that is safe for the individual and for other people. Thus, the Self serves as the "executive organ" of the personality and the area for the flow of intellectual processes and problem solving. As will be shown later, one of the main goals of psychoanalytic therapy is the release of a certain amount of energy of the Self, so that it becomes possible to solve problems at higher levels of the functioning of the psyche.

Super-I. In order for a person to function effectively in society, he must have a system of values, norms and ethics that are reasonably compatible with those accepted in his environment. All this is acquired in the process of "socialization"; in the language of the structural model of psychoanalysis - through the formation of the Super-I.

The superego is the last component of the developing personality, representing the internalized version of social norms and standards of behavior. From Freud's point of view, the human organism is not born with a Superego. Rather, children should acquire it through interaction with parents, teachers, and other "shaping" figures. Being the moral and ethical force of the personality, the Superego is the result of a child's long-term dependence on his parents. Formally, it appears when the child begins to distinguish between "right" and "wrong"; learns what is good and what is bad, moral or immoral (at about the age of three to five years). Initially, the Superego reflects only the parent's expectations of what constitutes good and bad behavior. Each act the child learns to bring into line with these restrictions in order to avoid conflict and punishment. However, as the child's social world begins to expand (through school, religion, and peer groups), the superego's realm expands to the limits of behavior that these new groups find acceptable. One can consider the Superego as an individualized reflection of the "collective conscience" of society, although the child's perception of the real values of society may be distorted.

Freud divided the Superego into two subsystems: the conscience and the I-ideal. Conscience is acquired through parental discipline. It is associated with what parents call "naughty behavior" and for which the child is reprimanded. Conscience includes the capacity for critical self-assessment, the existence of moral prohibitions, and the emergence of guilt in the child when he did not do what he should have done. The rewarding aspect of the Superego is the I-ideal. It is formed from what parents approve or highly value; it leads the individual to set high standards for himself. And, if the goal is achieved, it causes a feeling of self-respect and pride. For example, a child who is rewarded for doing well in school will always be proud of their academic achievements.

The super-ego is considered fully formed when parental control is replaced by self-control. However, this principle of self-control does not serve the purposes of the reality principle. Super-I, trying to completely slow down any socially condemned impulses from the side of the id, tries to direct a person to absolute perfection in thoughts, words and deeds. In short, it tries to convince the ego of the superiority of idealistic goals over realistic ones.

Driving Force of Behavior

Psychoanalytic theory is based on the notion that people are complex energy systems. In accordance with the achievements of physics and physiology of the XIX century, Freud believed that human behavior is activated by a single energy, according to the law of conservation of energy (that is, it can go from one state to another, but its amount remains the same). Freud took this general principle of nature, translated it into psychological terms, and concluded that the source of psychic energy is the neurophysiological state of arousal. Further, he postulated: each person has a certain limited amount of energy that feeds mental activity; the goal of any form of behavior of the individual is to reduce the tension caused by the accumulation of this energy, which is unpleasant for him.

Thus, according to Freud's theory, human motivation is entirely based on the energy of excitation produced by bodily needs. According to him, the main amount of mental energy produced by the body is directed to mental activity, which allows you to reduce the level of excitement caused by the need. According to Freud, mental images of bodily needs, expressed in the form of desires, are called instincts. The instincts manifest innate states of excitation at the level of the organism, requiring an exit and discharge. Freud argued that any human activity (thinking, perception, memory and imagination) is determined by instincts. The influence of the latter on behavior can be both direct and indirect, disguised. People behave this way or that way because they are motivated by unconscious tension - their actions serve the purpose of reducing this tension. Instincts as such are "the ultimate cause of all activity."

Although the number of instincts can be unlimited, Freud recognized the existence of two main groups: life and death instincts. The first group (under the general name of Eros) includes all the forces that serve the purpose of maintaining vital processes and ensuring the reproduction of the species. Recognizing the great importance of the life instincts in the physical organization of individuals, Freud considered the sexual instincts to be the most essential for the development of the personality. The energy of the sexual instincts is called libido, or the energy of libido is a term used in the sense of the energy of life instincts in general. Libido is a certain amount of psychic energy that finds discharge exclusively in sexual behavior.

Freud believed that there is not one sexual instinct, but several. Each of them is associated with a specific part of the body, called the erogenous zone. In a sense, the whole body is one large erogenous zone, but psychoanalytic theory emphasizes the mouth, anus, and genitals. Freud was convinced that the erogenous zones are potential sources of tension and that manipulation of these zones leads to a decrease in tension and causes pleasant sensations. Thus, biting or sucking produces oral pleasure, bowel movements lead to anal gratification, and masturbation leads to genital gratification.

The second group - the death instincts, called Thanatos - underlies all manifestations of cruelty, aggression, suicide and murder. Unlike the energy of the libido, as the energy of the life instincts, the energy of the death instincts has not received a special name. However, Freud considered them biologically determined and as important in the regulation of human behavior as the life instincts. He believed that the death instincts obey the principle of entropy (that is, the law of thermodynamics, according to which any energy system tends to maintain dynamic equilibrium). Referring to Schopenhauer, Freud stated: "The purpose of life is death." Thus, he meant to say that all living organisms have a compulsive desire to return to an indefinite state from which they left. That is, Freud believed that people have an inherent desire for death.

Any instinct has four characteristics: source, target, object and stimulus. The source of instinct is the state of the organism or the need that causes this state. The sources of life instincts are described by neurophysiology (for example, hunger or thirst). Freud did not give a clear definition of the death instincts. The purpose of instinct is always to eliminate or reduce the excitation caused by the need. If the goal is achieved, a person experiences a short-term state of bliss. Although there are many ways to achieve an instinctive goal, there is a tendency to maintain the state of arousal at some minimum level (according to the pleasure principle).

Object means any person, object in the environment, or something in the individual's own body that provides for the satisfaction (i.e., purpose) of an instinct. The actions leading to instinctive pleasure are not necessarily always the same. In fact, the object can change throughout life. In addition to flexibility in the choice of objects, individuals are able to delay the discharge of instinctive energy for long periods of time.

Finally, stimulus is the amount of energy, force, or pressure required to satisfy an instinct. It can be assessed indirectly by observing the number and types of obstacles that a person has to overcome in search of a particular goal.

The key to understanding the dynamics of instinctive energy and its expression in the choice of objects is the concept of displaced activity. According to this concept, the release of energy and the relaxation of tension occurs due to a change in behavioral activity. Displaced activity occurs when, for some reason, the choice of the desired object to satisfy the instinct is impossible. In such cases the instinct may shift and thus focus its energy on some other object.

Freud believed that many socio-psychological phenomena can be understood in the context of the displacement of two primary instincts: sexual and aggressive.

Psychosexual Stages

Psychoanalytic developmental theory rests on two premises. The first, or genetic premise, emphasizes that early childhood experiences play a critical role in shaping the adult personality. Freud was convinced that the basic foundation of an individual's personality is laid at a very early age, before the age of five. The second premise is that a person is born with a certain amount of sexual energy (libido), which then passes in its development through several psychosexual stages rooted in the instinctive processes of the body.

Freud came up with the hypothesis of four successive stages of personality development: oral, anal, phallic and genital.

Since Freud's main emphasis was on biological factors, all stages are closely related to erogenous zones, that is, sensitive areas of the body that function as loci for the expression of libido impulses. Erogenous zones include the ears, eyes, mouth (lips), mammary glands, anus, and genitals.

The term "psychosexual" emphasizes that the main factor determining the development of a person is the sexual instinct, progressing from one erogenous zone to another during a person's life. According to Freud's theory, at each stage of development, a certain area of the body tends to a certain object or action in order to cause pleasant tension. Psychosexual development is a biologically determined sequence that unfolds in an unchanging order and is inherent in all people, regardless of their cultural level. The social experience of the individual, as a rule, brings to each stage a certain long-term contribution in the form of acquired attitudes, traits and values.

Freud's stages of psychosexual development

	Age period	libido focus area	Tasks and experience appropriate for this level of development
oral	0 - 18 months	Mouth (sucking, biting, chewing)	Weaning (from breast or horn). Separation of self from mother's body
anal	1.5 - 3 years	Anus (holding or expelling feces)	Toilet training (self-control)
phallic		Sex organs (masturbation)	Identification with adults of the same sex acting as role models
Latent		Absent (sexual inactivity)	Expansion of social contacts with peers
Genital	Puberty (puberty)	Genital organs (ability to have heterosexual relationships)	Establishing close relationships or falling in love; making a contribution to society

Anxiety theory

Freud's earliest results in the treatment of disorders that were psychic rather than physiological in origin aroused his interest in the origin of anxiety. This interest first led him (in the 1890s) to suggest that the anxiety experienced by many of his neurotic patients was the result of an inadequate discharge of libido energy. He further concluded that the state of increasing tension was the result of the unexpressed energy of the libido. Excitation that does not end in discharge is transformed and manifests itself in anxiety neuroses. However, with the accumulation of experience in the treatment of neuroses, Freud came to understand that such an interpretation of anxiety and fear is incorrect. After 30 years, he revised his theory and came to the following conclusion: anxiety is a function of the ego and its purpose is to warn a person of an impending threat that must be met or avoided. Anxiety as such enables the individual to respond to threatening situations in an adaptive way.

According to the above thesis, the primary source of anxiety experienced by a person is rooted in the inability of the newborn to cope with internal and external excitement. Since infants are unable to control their new world, they are overwhelmed by a vague sense of impending danger. This situation produces a traumatic state known as primal anxiety, exemplified by the birth process itself. From Freud's point of view, the experience of biological separation from the mother is traumatic, and therefore subsequent situations of separation (for example, the child is left alone; he is left in the dark or finds a stranger where he expected to find the mother) cause a strong anxiety reaction. A similar feeling of intense stress and helplessness is experienced at birth, weaning, and later manifests itself in fear of castration. All such experiences lead to increased tension and apprehension.

Depending on where the threat to the ego comes from (from the external environment, from the id or superego), psychoanalytic theory distinguishes three types of anxiety: realistic, neurotic, moral.

Realistic anxiety. An emotional response to a threat and/or an awareness of the real dangers of the outside world (such as dangerous animals or a final exam) is called realistic anxiety. It is basically synonymous with fear and can impair a person's ability to deal effectively with a source of danger. Realistic anxiety subsides as soon as the threat itself disappears. In general, realistic anxiety helps to ensure self-preservation.

neurotic anxiety. The emotional response to the danger that unacceptable impulses from the id will become conscious is called neurotic anxiety. It is due to the fear that the ego will be unable to control instinctive urges, especially sexual or aggressive ones. Anxiety in this case stems from the fear that when you do something terrible, it will entail severe negative consequences. Thus, for example, the young child quickly learns that the active discharge of his libidinal impulses or destructive tendencies will be fraught with the threat of punishment from parents or other social figures. Neurotic anxiety is initially experienced as realistic because the punishment usually comes from an external source. Therefore, defensive mechanisms of the ego are deployed, with the aim of restraining the instinctive impulses of the child - as a result, the latter float to the surface only in the form of a general fear. It is only when the instinctive impulses of the id threaten to break through the control of the ego that neurotic anxiety arises.

Moral anxiety. When the ego is threatened with punishment from the superego, the resulting emotional response is called moral anxiety. Moral anxiety arises whenever the id seeks to actively express immoral thoughts or actions, and the superego responds to this with feelings of guilt, shame, or self-blame. Moral anxiety comes from the objective fear of parental punishment for some act or action (for example, for obscene swearing or shoplifting) that violates the perfectionist requirements of the superego. The superego directs behavior towards actions that fit into the moral code of the individual. The subsequent development of the superego leads to social anxiety, which arises in connection with the threat of exclusion from the peer group due to unacceptable attitudes or actions. Freud later became convinced that anxiety, originating from the superego, eventually grows into fear of death and the expectation of future retribution for past or present sins.

The main psychodynamic function of anxiety is to help the person avoid consciously identifying themselves with unacceptable instinctive impulses and to encourage the satisfaction of these impulses in the proper ways at the right time. The defense mechanisms of the Self help the implementation of these functions, and also protect a person from overwhelming anxiety. Freud defined self defense mechanisms as a conscious strategy that the individual uses to protect himself from the open expression of id impulses and counter pressure from the superego. Freud believed that the ego reacts to the threat of a breakthrough of id impulses in two ways: by blocking the expression of impulses in conscious behavior or by distorting them to such an extent that their original intensity is noticeably reduced or deviated to the side.

All defense mechanisms have two characteristics in common: they operate at an unconscious level and are therefore a means of self-deception, and they distort, deny or falsify the perception of reality in order to make anxiety less threatening to the individual. It should also be noted that people rarely use any single defense mechanism - usually they use various defense mechanisms to resolve conflict or reduce anxiety.

Freud described the following mechanisms:

Crowding out. Sometimes described as “motivated forgetting,” repression is the process of removing painful thoughts and feelings from consciousness. As a result of repression, individuals are unaware of their anxiety-producing conflicts and also have no memory of traumatic past events.

Projection. It is the process by which an individual attributes their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to other people or environments. Thus, projection allows a person to place the blame on someone or something for their shortcomings or blunders.

Substitution. The manifestation of the instinctive impulse is redirected from a more threatening object or person to a less threatening one. Substitution also manifests itself in the increased sensitivity of adults to the slightest annoying moments. A common example is the child who, after being punished or severely criticized by his parents, pushes his little sister, kicks her dog, or breaks her toys.

Rationalization. Another way for the self to deal with frustration and anxiety is to distort reality and thus protect self-esteem. Rationalization refers to false reasoning by which irrational behavior is presented in such a way that it appears perfectly reasonable and therefore justified in the eyes of others. A student who fails to get into the dental department of a medical school may convince herself that she doesn't really want to be a dentist.

Reactive education. The protective process is carried out in two stages: first, the unacceptable impulse is suppressed; then, on the level of consciousness, the opposite is manifested. The resistance is especially noticeable in socially approved behavior, which at the same time looks exaggerated and inflexible. For example, a woman who is anxious about her own pronounced sexual desire may become a staunch fighter against pornographic films in her circle.

Regression. It is a way to alleviate anxiety by returning to an earlier period of life that is safer and more enjoyable. Easily recognizable manifestations of regression in adults include intemperance, dissatisfaction, as well as such features as "pouting and not talking" with others, baby talk, resisting authority, or driving a car at a recklessly high speed.

Sublimation. Enables a person, for the purpose of adaptation, to change their impulses so that they can be expressed through socially acceptable thoughts or actions. Sublimation is seen as the only healthy, constructive strategy for curbing unwanted impulses because it allows the self to change the purpose and/or object of the impulses without inhibiting their manifestation. The energy of instincts is diverted through other channels of expression - those that society considers acceptable.

Negation. The person refuses to admit that an unpleasant event has occurred. According to Freud, denial is most typical of young children and older individuals with reduced intelligence (although mature and normally developed people can also sometimes use denial in highly traumatic situations).

Oedipus complex

The concept introduced by Sigmund Freud and denoting - a complex of childhood experiences, consisting of a boy's attraction to his mother with jealousy and hostility towards his father, developing in this regard.

Developing the doctrine of neuroses, Freud came to the conclusion that there are strong sexual motives in their etymology. Turning to mythological plots, artistic and literary monuments of history for confirmation of his hypothesis, Freud pays special attention to the ancient Greek myth of Oedipus Rex.

The name of the complex comes from ancient Greek mythology: “Oedipus is the son of the king from the city of Thebes Laya and queen Jocasta, who were predicted that their son would kill his father and become the husband of his own mother. When Oedipus was born, the king ordered his feet to be pierced (Oedipus means puffy, with swollen legs) and thrown to be eaten by animals. The slave took pity on the boy and gave him to the shepherd of the Corinthian king Polybus. Oedipus grew up in the belief that King Polybus was his father.

The same Delphic oracle, on whose tip the king ordered the murder of his own son, predicted (inspired?) Oedipus himself that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Shocked by this prediction, Oedipus decides to leave the house that he considered his own. On the way, Oedipus meets Laius and, having entered into an argument with him, kills him. Thus the first part of the prophecy was fulfilled: Oedipus becomes the murderer of his father.

On the way to Thebes, Oedipus meets the Sphinx, who guards the city and devours all travelers who do not solve his riddle. Oedipus solves the riddle. Then the Sphinx rushes into the abyss, and the road to Thebes becomes free. Oedipus enters the city, and the grateful Thebans elect him king and give Jocasta, the widow of the former king, as his wife.

From this marriage were born the sons of Eteocles and Polynices, as well as the daughters of Yemen and Antigonus. So the second part of the prophecy (which is somewhat similar to suggestion) comes true - Oedipus becomes the husband of his mother. A few years later, a fierce famine began in Thebes, an epidemic of plague broke out. The Delphic oracle predicts that the disasters will end after the killer of Laia is discovered. As a result of the investigation, Oedipus learns the truth with horror, blinds himself and leaves Thebes, Jocasta commits suicide.

In this mythological story, Freud saw not only evidence that sexual desires are the basis of human activity, but also confirmation of the idea of the existence of those sexual complexes that supposedly have been embedded in a person since childhood. The Oedipus complex, being one of the basic formations, further determines the specifics of a person's sexual life, the characteristics of his inclinations, oddities, tastes and habits. Preformations of this complex also underlie neuroses and neurotic reactions in humans.

In adult life, the Oedipus complex is forced into the unconscious, is universal for men and determines many aspects of their sexuality and neuroticism.

Accordingly, in girls and women, the so-called Electra complex is formed and develops.

3 . Applicationpsychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud

The theory of psychoanalysis is suitable for understanding virtually any area of human behavior. Fields as diverse as anthropology, art, forensic science, history, economics, education, philosophy, sociology, and religion have been influenced by it. It can be said without exaggeration that there is no other theory in modern psychology that would have as many specific applications as psychoanalysis. In truth, psychoanalysis has not escaped sharp criticism from contemporary personologists. For example, many believe that Freud's theory exaggerates the negative, pathological side of human life and at the same time underestimates the positive, healthy sides of the human being's self-manifestation. However, even those who reject it recognize its great and fruitful contribution to the solution of personal problems. The latter is today perhaps the most significant and promising application of psychoanalytic theory, to which we turn again.

Since Freud's theory of human nature was based on his clinical observations of sick neuroses, it makes sense to consider the therapeutic methods of psychoanalysis. Today, many psychoanalysts carry out therapy exactly in accordance with Freud's theoretical views and his methods of treatment. In addition, many mental health professionals have a clear psychoanalytic orientation in their area of work. To understand what a Freudian-oriented therapist actually does, consider the following clinical case: “Robert, aged 18, is referred to a psychoanalyst by his family doctor. During the past year, he has developed many painful symptoms such as headache, dizziness, palpitations, waking up in the middle of the night with a feeling of extreme anxiety. All this happens against the backdrop of a constant, periodically overwhelming fear of death. Robert thinks he has a brain tumor and will die. But, despite a large number of clinical examinations, he found no physical data for such symptoms. The doctor eventually concluded that "Robert's symptoms are probably due to psychological causes."

When does love become a disease?

2012-03-27

When we say about a person that he is literally "sick with love", we are not so wrong. In 2011, WHO assigned love the international cipher F 63.9 and classified it as a mental disorder (item "Disorder of habits and inclinations", immediately after alcoholism, gambling, substance abuse and kleptomania). However, medicine has long been aware of the pathological dependence on love, which received a beautiful name in psychiatry after its first established victim ...

Adélie syndrome

Adele Hugo, the daughter of the great writer Victor Hugo, all her life unrequitedly loved one man - the cynical English officer Albert Pinson. She refused to believe that he did not love her, bombarded him with love letters, paid off his gambling debts and was not jealous only of the prostitutes, whom she herself selected for him. "I'll sell my soul to the devil for a night with you!" - this phrase from the popular musical "Notre Dame" based on the novel by Hugo could well have belonged to Adele herself. The unfortunate woman spent her whole life wandering around the world, chasing Pinson, who during this time managed to successfully marry, have children and grow old, and died a virgin at the age of 85 in an insane asylum. The last thing they heard from her was the name of her lover. Not surprisingly, psychiatrists called the syndrome of love insanity "Adélie's syndrome."

Where is the line between the blues about unrequited love, which every person encounters at least once in their life, and a dangerous illness? To this day, psychiatrists cannot unambiguously answer this question. According to statistics, "Adélie's syndrome" most often affects women aged 25 to 45 years. The most recent tragic example is the suicide of the wife of actor Alexander Porokhovshchikov, Irina Porokhovshchikova, who committed suicide in a fit of despair when she was told that her husband might not live to see the morning. But history also knows cases of this disease among men. So, the talented actor Yan Puzyrevsky, who played the role of Kai in the film "The Secret of the Snow Queen", could not survive the divorce from his beloved wife and jumped out of the window of the 12th floor along with his 8-month-old son. (The kid, fortunately, caught on a tree during the fall and was not injured, but Jan could not be saved).

According to researchers from the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, led by Professor Georgin Montemayor Flores, love can be compared with obsessive-compulsive disorder (from the Latin obsessio - "siege, blockade" and compulsare - "to force") - one of the anxiety disorders, the main symptoms of which are obsessions (persistent irrational thoughts and desires) and compulsions (uncontrollable repetitive actions), acting as a defense against feelings of anxiety.

control test

Adele's syndrome should not be confused with nymphomania (from the Greek nymphe - "bride, young woman" and manía - "madness") - a pathological sexual desire in women, manifested by an unbridled desire for sex with different partners.

Here are a number of symptoms common to the "Adelie syndrome" that should alert you at their first appearance:

Commercials, you can write down any strong love for the "Adele syndrome" if you follow this test. Human feelings ... sometimes ... are much more subtle than psychology tries to convince us. Especially now. In an age when everyone is trying to materialize and measure to the maximum, to label. No, except that living feelings rarely obey logic at all ... so they are also unique in view of their "carrier". Love is passed through the prism of the human personality. Someone commits suicide from the impossibility of love, someone goes crazy, someone is even able to kill the object of his passion ... and there are those who suffer ... due to various circumstances, time, situation, and then completely they are happy with themselves, but this "Adelie syndrome" does not go anywhere. People live together for many years, but still succumb to "unreasonable longing." This is absolutely not the area of human life, on which you can write books like "how to love." Because the right thing is to love.

. Arina Korneeva March 27 at 18:07

It's not about how to "love right," I think. (You correctly noted that it is right to simply love). And in the banal safety precautions. If love causes too much pain, changes personality and threatens the mental or physical health of the object or subject, then this is indeed a pathology.

And yet, lovebirds 3-4 years in a row are quite rare. Well, as they say, as long as they are comfortable.))
And it seems to me that safety precautions in the field of love are difficult to follow) Either love has appeared and you love, strongly and in your own way, or not.)

. Arina Korneeva March 27 at 18:23

Difficult, but possible, I think.
Because when it is already very painful to love, and / or your friends / relatives / the subject of love himself begin to twist a finger at the temple and call a psychiatric team, something is clearly wrong here.
Although, as with any mental illness, there is no criticism of one's condition)

It seems to me that this definition cannot be applied to love at all. Who will measure this "too"? Relatives who are not involved in the situation, but look from the outside, from the position of their experience, worldview, their feelings? It's not the same shirt, so the standard size for everyone, the safety vest. I think that the fear of love is more of a disease ... of its time. When people are afraid of feelings, they live, replacing the present with practical, comfortable... There is a certain set of things that everyone should have... and then everything is considered to be in order. Sex, for example. Or what is called in a strange way "personal life". Availability - another word from the series "set" - a partner. The time when we endlessly build our business, career - partners at work, in bed and at home - too. And then the personal world is comfortable and sterile. What's up with the "Adele syndrome"?.. And love is always bright emotions, a wave that sweeps away and destroys... one way or another. And if she invades such a world, of course, she turns it upside down. Me

It also changes the personality of its owner.
Perhaps this is just one of those few factors that can change a person - love. And you propose not to allow this.

. Arina Korneeva March 28 at 11:49 am

I can not offer not to allow, because it is impossible)
Change changes strife. There is a change in behavior inherent in love. A person can become better, which is wonderful.
But if love, like mental illness, begins to change the very core of the personality, to threaten the health of the lover himself and the health and well-being of his beloved, then this is what I call pathology. I'm talking about the persecution of a lover (oh), about demonstrative suicides, about when a lover stops eating (at all, and does not eat for weeks), about insults and threats "if you are not with me, I will kill you."
I'm only FOR bright emotions, and even more so for love. But sometimes it really becomes a disease. And the patient himself is not able to see it in himself.

It means that you were misunderstood by me. I beg your pardon) But I still think that diseases happen more quickly ... not because of love, but because of personal inclinations. By no means do I say that people themselves are to blame, but I believe that not everyone is predisposed to being "sick with love." And as for the fact that her patient is not able to see ... so it is with any mental illness, as far as I know.
Yet - no, true love does not drive you crazy in a bad way. Yes, there are sufferings, but deep down in their hearts, such masochism is not alien to many. Especially creative people...
"A large warm tear fell on the young man's knee, and, however unhappy Mowgli was, he felt pleasure from the consciousness of his own misfortune; I don’t know if you can understand this kind of strange perverted happiness ..." (c)

. Arina Korneeva March 28 at 12:58

Why love drives you crazy, science, I'm afraid, is still unknown. Probably, a deep feeling is layered on various complexes, perversions and accentuations of the personality, and results in the most bizarre forms. But that doesn't mean it's not real. Even if it drives you crazy in the worst possible way.
To suffer from love is a sacred thing. But to make others suffer from your love is a disastrous business. Here already legs in hands and to psychiatrists.

Surrounding people - relatives and friends - will always suffer from intimacy ... for the time being, a person is an egoist. This, I think, does not depend on the presence of passive love. The mood is not the same, another fell on a loved one, he suffers. And there are those who "sick" silently and in the corner. And others do not notice and do not suffer. And this does not mean at all that his love, if we talk about what you call pathology, is “healthier” than the one who is “sick” loudly and publicly. It depends on the person, which means that the suffering of others is not a criterion by which a diagnosis can be made.

. Arina Korneeva March 28 at 14:22

I spoke about the active suffering of the lover himself, too.
How does involuntary hospitalization in psychiatry occur: in case of danger to the life and health of others or oneself.
If a person stops eating (and I'm not talking about a slight decrease in appetite), or even more so - he wants to kill himself, he also has a direct road to the psychiatric ward.

Let's, firstly, look at another case - love can be mutual, "we can't live without each other" - and then it's wonderful. I knew the restorer, she was also my teacher in design, and she loved her husband just like that. And in such cases, when one of the lovers dies, the other also does not live long; she died probably 5-7 days after the death of her husband. But! Here everything is mutual and everyone was happy.
Yes, love is a disorder. Psychotherapists, those who are not in hospitals (not psychiatrists), but in offices - they say that yes - love is the most difficult to treat. But it is being treated. And it is the very set of tips placed at the end of the material that works if there is a goal to be cured. Is there a purpose? - because love is such an interesting state ...
And so - quite nothing: there is such a thing, and they even go crazy and do not treat. And she, Adele Hugo, didn’t want to be treated! (I still play pranks, because in Russia they say about such people: “stupid woman!”)

Well, in fairness it should be noted that in the time of Adele there were not yet such a huge number of people bawling that love is not just an "infection and plague", but one for which there is a cure.
Still, I stubbornly do not believe that there is a cure for love. I don't think it's love then. And pathology is - again - not the "fault" of love. Yes, and this Adele ... no one knows what really happened there, inside the situation itself ...