The unconscious body image: Who are you really

Body image as the image I!

The question "Who am I?" Is a key issue in psychology.

This is a fundamental, underlying existential question in human life. All other questions follow from it: "Why should I?", "Where am I?", Etc. If the answer to the question "Who am I?", All other issues will automatically get the following answers to this. But this answer can give only the man himself, it is useless to search for answers outside. Another can only say. "How I See You", "How do you perceive," and most of these are based on the assessment of its own projections and fantasies

Only he knows the subject - who he really is. But you need to take responsibility for themselves, for their lives, and not to shift it outside, considering himself "a victim of circumstances", "random coincidence", etc. The answer to the question "Who am I?" Implies the acceptance of responsibility, and the responsibility is always scary. But it is the responsibility - the main characteristic of psychological maturity, the rate of psychological maturation

. The answer to the question "Who am I?" Can have different levels of difficulty - basic authentication levels. The basic idea of ​​himself - self-concept.

Self-concept as a psychological construct begins to form about one and a half years old when the child gradually distinguishes itself from the environment comes from the so-called "ocean merge" with the world becomes aware of itself. Thus, many experiments to identify the inception of consciousness connected with the body, for example, Lewis and Brooks (1974) were placed on the forehead of the child spot and brings it to the mirror. Only since the 16 months the children were drawn to her face, not the mirror image.

First, as an intermediate step, the child is already separated himself from the world, but not yet identified by a full, therefore he speaks of himself in the third person: "Vanya hungry", "Masha cold» ...

Next there is a monologue in the first person and the initial view of themselves, primary identification, "I - a boy", "I - good", etc.




Self-concept consists of 2 parts: the self-image and

. The image I - presentation of himself as a subject: "Who am I?". The Self - assess the performance: "What I am?»

The image I have is the primary and basic characteristic, developmentally earlier. Self-generated later when the child is faced with estimating him and his actions on the part of significant figures (primarily - parent): usually 2-3 years

. If year-old child like unconditional love and accept all of its activities, the year-old child has begun to evaluate the actions - it is part of the socialization, the formation of the child as a subject of social, his initiation into life in society. The Self - the result of internalization (assignment outside to inside) a child-

. At this age, early childhood, formed the base of narcissism, which in one form or another is present in every one of us:

presentation of himself as a subject of quite good - healthy narcissism, implying a sense of self-worth and dignity to be yourself;

presentation of himself as the best - unhealthy narcissistic position is actually "narcissism" in the narrow sense of the word as excessive self-worth;

perception of themselves as bad subject - the second option unhealthy narcissistic position. The different concepts we meet it under the names of "a wounded narcissism", "ficiency narcissism", "narcissism of death»

. The image I am more objective characterization based on objective reality. Adequately I easily checked by relating with reality - a significant part of the characteristics of manifest objective: gender, age, etc.

The Self - feature only subjective evaluation. There can not be "units" for the values ​​and the "goodness" of the person ...

Accordingly, the self-image - a constant (constant) characteristic, and the Self - changing

. The image I have - a deep, basic construct, less amenable to influence. This is what in the esoteric teachings called the "inner truth": if a person is sure he is right, in its opinion it is difficult to influence. For example, if you know exactly what you are - a person, you let 10 people will say that you - the Martian, you just laugh ...

But the Self is more susceptible to outside influence, in the first place - from the authoritative figures for us. Self-change faster than the way I am - sometimes one action that will radically change the Self, whether it be for the better or for the worse

. As we said, the Self is related to our natural narcissism, and thus, have a fairly good the Self (self-image as a good enough subject) - our basic need. It is the unconscious desire to make her a more positive self-attitude makes us commit "feats": won a medal at the Olympics is important for our

Unconscious only as a symbol of improving attitudes towards themselves, their values, metallic kruglyash itself to unconsciously do not understand ... On the contrary, the feeling of shame experienced by us is very painful, because hurt narcissism, the Self. Having made "unworthy act" oriental samurai do hara-kiri, Western officers - shoot ...

The image I is composed of several sub-structures. Traditionally distinguish:

I-corporal as a representation of his own body;

I-psychological - view of their psychological qualities, character and psychological profile, etc .;

I-social - I as a subject of social, role and place in society;

I-spiritual - understanding of their spiritual qualities

. And if the last three construct repeatedly investigated and psychology, and sociology, and philosophy, and other interests of the individual disciplines, the I-corporal, oddly enough, not enough attention is paid. However, I-corporeal - a remarkable diagnostic and corrective tool. R. Burns even called body image, "a source of self-concept".

With solid way I worked closely Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984) - the founder of the system of functional rehabilitation and physical awareness. His work in this field he started during the Second World War in England, working in hospitals, then moved to Israel. Currently, it is referred to the system of body-oriented psychotherapy, it is popular all over the world, especially in Austria, England, Germany, Israel, Russia, the United States

M.Feldenkrayz proposed to explore the image of the body, namely - the unconscious part. After all, I'm not as simple as it seems. Only a small part of us realized: conscious self-image. Like an iceberg, the bulk of their self-image is hiding in the unconscious. This applies to all elements of the image I am and I'm bodily and I-psihologicheksogo and I-social and spiritual self-

. This means that each of us has two ideas about their bodies: conscious and unconscious. Conscious view more close to reality. We mentally intact human it largely coincides with reality. One of the characteristics of the disease - a violation of reality testing that is adequate perception of it. So, anorexia - borderline, and conscious body image in anoreksichki already far from a real body: having the apparent lack of weight, she perceives her body as a total. In the case of more serious disorders, and even more delusional states, any fantasy may arise with regard to his body ...

The unconscious idea of ​​his own body may differ from reality even mentally intact adult. M.Feldenkrayz called average statistical distortion of the unconscious image of the body (unlike the real body): 20-25%. Subsequent studies confirmed this figure.

As the advantages of working with an image of the body, following calls M.Feldenkrayz.

Firstly, the body revealed to us objectively, we have a criterion with which we can compare the client's subjective perceptions: the constant reference point

. Second, the scope of a psychological zatabuirovana less available: their emotional experiences and memories rannedetskim client has admitted not so readily as to the study of body image

. To change your life, it is necessary to change the course of action, and for this it is necessary to change the self-image. And to start with the easiest way of his body. While the image of his own body is distorted, a person can not have a realistic view of himself as a whole, in Vol. H. Of the psychological qualities.

M.Felnkrayz proposed principle diagnostsirovaniya unconscious body image: the respondent with eyes closed showing the dimensions of parts of his body

. On its basis in 2002 the method "Measurements on M.Feldenkrayzu»

. Was compiled The technique measures the 15 parameters:

N

perceived body

real body

1) The width of the head
2) The width of the mouth
3) The width of the neck
4) The width of the shoulders
5) The width c.
cells 6) Waist
7) The width of the pelvic
8) foot length
9) The height of the legs
10) The height of the head
11) The length of neck
12) The length of the torso
13) The length of the arms
14) The width of the hips
15) The length of the torso to the crotch

The data is transferred to the paper at a scale of 10: 1, the result is a schematic representation of the human figure, which is a reflection of the unconscious body image

. Chance of quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis.

Quantitative analysis of the percentage of distortion is calculated for each of the parameters (marked problem area) and average value (the distortion of the unconscious image of the body as a whole). Of course, this requires not only the parameters of body image, but a real body: they are measured by medical device tazomera
. In qualitative analysis studied the resulting visual image of the unconscious image of the body.
Since quantitative analysis is reduced to simple mathematical calculations (with data on actual body and body image data, it is easy to calculate the percentage of distortion), we would like to stop on qualitative analysis.

The unconscious body image reflects the nature of the structure (sometimes also called a "psycho"). According M.Feldenkrayzu, "We live and act in accordance with the way I am." That is manifested in the world and build our lives on the basis of representations of themselves. That thing - "Who am I?", Which we mentioned at the beginning. You can bring a lot of aphorisms on the subject, including - "The nature of man - his fate." The body - a substrate for the psyche. Our understanding of your body - the foundation for psychological representations of themselves

. Ontogenetic first as a basic construct of operation formed body diagram: representation of the location of his body in space, the ability to control, manage ... then expanded to the image of the body - the body at the same time looks like, what it is ... Our basic nature of the structure, the main features of the unconscious image of the body are formed in pre-school age, to 7 years. Next may significantly change during puberty (teenage years, 12-16 years). After 18 years, rarely undergo drastic changes.

Thus, the nature of the structure gives an idea of ​​the psychological portrait, the nuclear issue, the individual life strategies, resources, advocacy, communication patterns, and much more. In turn, the nature of the structure, we can diagnose on the unconscious image of the body.

We would like to propose the following typology of character structures, facilitating qualitative analysis of the unconscious image of the body. We remind you that the unconscious body image may differ significantly from the real body. And the image data is an image of the body is unconscious, not a real body.

Illustration 0.

A striking example of the real body and the perceived mismatch. Unconscious image of the transsexual body - Persons with gender identity disorder. Biologically it is a male, 35 years, a large body. The psychological unconscious image of the body has all the signs of femininity

body image

There is no person who would be 100% of the same type, each of us is a combination of 2-3 character structure. We give an example of a body images that accurately reflect the possible features of a character structure. But they belong to a real, not a "perfect" people, you can find elements of other structures of character, besides the main.

Schizoid character structure - the most common of its designation. However Bodynamic Analysis (Denmark), you can also find it under the name of "mental structure of existence»

. Illustration 1.

body image

Age-frame forming: prenatal (in utero), childbirth, the first six months of infancy

. Body image: long and thin, like a "stick", elongated neck proportion, torso, arms and legs (like a root, trying through the dark forest of poor conditions to get to the sun, where it will be better). Big head (sometimes longer than the width - rationalization, mentality). The feet are small (a problem with the base reference, can not rely either on themselves or on others). small mouth (isolation, inability to express themselves and take from the outside). No sexual characteristics, but it is not gender identity disorder (transsexualism) and unformed - pregenital character structure, issues of sexuality for that psychological age is not yet relevant

. Real body: thin, stooped (pulls his shoulders), weak muscles in the body a lot of asymmetry, look out of focus

. Cause of formation: the trauma of rejection, leading to the undeveloped basic right to exist

. Psychological picture. Such a person is always given Hamlet question: "To be or not to be?" He feels in this world is superfluous, unnecessary. The basic distrust of the world, the world seems insecure, rejected. As the protection used by rationalization, ignoring dissatsiatsiya. The mental perception of the world, emotions are suppressed. Closure of the problems with making contact, loneliness. The profession chooses the mental plane: IT, science ...

Psychological help - to learn the basic right to exist: to experience unconditional understanding, help to feel the importance and necessity of this world

. The oral character structure.

Illustration 2.

body image

Age-frame form:. The first half year of life (here and below - after the birth)

Body image: a low and wide, like a "ball" (oral need to be filled). Head with a small (impulsivity, self-control failure, awareness). The feet are small (the basic problem with the reference, the inability to rely on themselves, the need for support on the other). Mouth large (deprevirovannye oral needs seek satisfaction).

Real body: oral trauma (in infancy) are varied, hence the variation of oral type. However, try to identify common features: lack of weight (unnatural thinness) or surplus (apparent completeness, uniformly distributed throughout the body). Weak legs, up to the X-shaped. Oral fixation: permanent dviizheniya mouth, biting or sucking, moving off of the mouth (with hands or objects - a pen, a cigarette). Brushes are tense as the "Bird's paw" fingers if want something to compress (mlaenets, clinging to the adult's hand). Look focused, looking for contact.

Cause of formation. Deprivation of oral needs: breach of care in infancy. Variability: ignoring the needs of the child, excessive care, lack of understanding of the needs, etc. Hence, a variety of options such as oral: emotional existence structure needs structure (Bodynamic L.Marcher analysis, Denmark), paranoid and depressive ( "Psychoanalytic diagnostics" N.Makvilyams, USA) and others

. Psychological picture. It seeks to establish good symbiosis: contact-merger, in which its requirements will be perfectly met. Do not tolerate the frustration of needs (angry, refuses, insisting on her). There can not be one. Constantly seeking care or compensatory cares about others. It is often emotionally dependent destructive relationships (marriage to an alcoholic, etc.). The profession chooses associated with contact with people (doctor, psychologist, educator, guide ...).

Psychological help. Teach yourself to meet their needs.

Masochistic character structure.

Figure 3.

Age frame formation: from about 1 year to 2, 5 years

. Body image: a wide body, especially the lower half. Long foot wide hips. Torso wide, without pronounced waist, but the chest is tight. "Bull's" neck, large head. All these signs represent the same thing: "All suffer, I'm taking all by yourself." Маленький рот (запрет на выражение себя).

Реальное тело. Полные бедра, таз, даже у мужчин, а вот плечи слабые и сутулые, словно на них груз, грудная клетка кажется вдавленной. Шея короткая и толстая. Походка тяжелая. Тело ригидное. Медлительность. Взгляд снизу вверх, виноватый.

Причина формирования. Отказ от сепарации во имя сохранения контакта, сопровождающийся ущемлением достоинства. На этой возрастной стадии, называемой стадией автономии, ребенок начинает отделение из родительского пространства. Не все родители (в первую очередь – мамы) могут это принять, бессознательно они удерживают при себе ребенка, наказывая его отвержением за попытку проявить самостоятельность. Будучи маленьким и полностью зависимым, ребенок бессознательно решает пожертвовать своей самостоятельностью, чтобы сохранить любовь и защиту мамы. Но переживает это как проигрыш, унижение.

Психологический портрет. Раненый нарциссизм – ощущение своей плохости, зависимость от одобрения, мнения других, попытка заслужить «поглаживания», уязвимость самооценки. Эпилептоидные черты, внимание к деталям, терпеливость, выносливость. Преданность, консерватизм, страх перемен, психологическая ригидность. Много подавленного гнева. Часто испытывает вину и стыд. Выбирает профессии, требующие терпения и внимания к деталям (например, бухгалтер).

Психологическая помощь. Формирование чувства собственной «хорошести», поддержка в сепарации, укрепление границ, освоение навыков регуляции гнева.

Психопатическая структура характера.

Иллюстрация 4.

образ тела

Возрастные рамки формирования: приблизительно 2-3, 5 года

Образ тела: легкая нижняя часть и раздутая верхняя. Широкие плечи и грудная клетка, узкий таз и бедра (тонкие ноги), длинные стопы, длинные руки. Маленькая голова, при этом ширина может быть больше высоты. Эти признаки говорят об ощущении собственной силы и значимости, стремлении к власти и контролю, желании доминирования и самоутверждения. Большой рот (склонность к отреагированию).

Реальное тело. Прямая спина, развернутые назад напряженные плечи, прямой контролирующий взгляд свысока, маскообразное лицо, ноги прямые и напряженные, стопы развернуты вовне.

Причина формирования: отказ от контакта во имя стремления к сепарации. Соответственно, фиксация на власти, отстаивании своей независимости и значимости. На стадии автономии родители могли излишне подчеркивать самостоятельность и успешность ребенка, например, в силу собственного нарциссизма: «Мой ребенок – самый лучший!» Или потакать его гневным истерикам (такое бывает в ситуации слабой матери и дистантного отца).

Психологический портрет. Властный, жесткий, вплоть до жестокости, в том числе по отношению к себе. Структурированы, хорошо чувствует иерархию, подчиняют или подчиняются, но плохо выстраивают отношения наравных. В любой профессиональной сфере стремятся к лидерству, часто выбирают силовые или бизнесовые структуры.

Психологическая помощь. Раскрыть ценность сердечности.

Истерическая структура характера.

Иллюстрация 5.

образ тела

Возрастные рамки формирования: 3-6 лет.

Образ тела: имеет четкую гендерную принадлежность. Маленькие стопы и длинные ноги (убегание от реальности, амбиции), длинные руки (дистантность), таз как признак секуальности выражен, тонкая талия (расщепление сердечност и генитальности), грудная клетка может быть шире плеч (экзальтированность), длинная тонкая шея, маленькая голова (импульсивность).

Реальное тело: ухоженное, гибкое, подвижное, энергичное, экспрессивное. Подчеркнута мужественность/женственность. Старательно украшено одеждой, аксессуарами, татуировками и др.

Причина формирования: фиксация на сексуальности, на Эдипальной ситуации.

Психологический портрет: соблазняющее сексуализированное поведение, при этом самим субъектом оно может не осознаваться. Соблазняет противоположный пол, конкурирует со своим. Отрицание сексуальности во имя сердечности или же отрицание сердечности во имя сексуальности. Защиты: соблазнение, отрицание. Выбирает профессии, в которых можно получить внимание (шоу-бизнес, ТВ, публичные выступления) или связанные с внешней красотой (дизайнер, модельер).

Психологическая помощь. Освоение здорового права на сексуальность. Формирование адекватного чувства собственной ценности как женщины/мужчины и признание ценности других. Интеграция сердечности и привлекательности.

Автор: Ирина Соловьева