Devaluation (psychology)
The devaluation as a psychological defense mechanism belongs to the primitive defense mechanisms and forms the opposite pole to idealization . As a protective mechanism, devaluation is used to stabilize self-esteem and serves to ward off feelings of envy or fear of loss and dependency.
In a pathological form, the defense against devaluation can be a part of the splitting defense typical for disorders at a low structural level ( narcissistic and borderline personality disorder ) and thus represents an important symptom of these disorders. Well-integrated personalities also use the defensive defense to protect the self-concept and in social Competitive situations. This is done by emphasizing qualities in a person who is actually envied in which he is inferior to the devaluating person.
People with narcissistic or borderline personality disorder depend on defensiveness and therefore apply it systematically and frequently. In contrast to well-integrated personalities, the devaluation is also more merciless and apparently more irrefutable. In the case of well-integrated personalities, the devaluation is primarily in the service of the rationalization or suppression of deficits perceived by another person or as a barrier for sympathies directed towards them that contradict their own value convictions or fears of dependency.
genesis
Devaluation means a disproportionately negative evaluation of an object or an object representation for the purpose of increasing or stabilizing one's own self-image . In the early development of the self , concepts of “good” and “bad” are not yet integrated. This means that the toddler in the first 1-2 years of life perceives himself or the objects interacting with them as either completely good or completely bad, depending on the situation. The mother who is giving food or love is at this moment a perfectly “good” object and the child cannot imagine that this good object also has “bad” parts in it that belong to every complete personality. Only with increasing development and the acquisition of a more stable sense of self will the child perceive the personality of the objects of reference in a more complex way and be able to take an integrating view of both the negative and positive sides of the object and the self.
If this development is disturbed, for example by a primary caregiver who predominantly emphasizes the child's negative self-representations or is unable to show or experience its own ambivalence , the child will remain in this early childhood split self-perception and object perception and later Living under specific stressful situations for one's own self, for example with a superior competitor, reactivating the early childhood defenses and denying the object in question any positive side.
More specific scenarios of pathogenesis related to narcissistic personality disorder are, for example, the following: With an unsteady primary caregiver, the toddler is psychologically dependent on denying its own survival dependence on this unpredictable object. Otherwise it would float in constant fear for its own survival. The denial of dependency is then also maintained in later life and causes massive devaluation tendencies towards people who are close to themselves or who could be potential relationship partners.
In a similarly fatal way, caregivers have an impact on the development of the child, who link their affection for the child to performance conditions and, if they fail to perform, withdraw their love. As a result, the child cannot develop stable and self - sufficient self-esteem and will always be dependent on external narcissistic supplies. If in later life certain objects do not show their appreciation or admiration or if they reduce it, then these objects are mercilessly devalued. This process is known as narcissistic anger .
See also
- Idealization (defense mechanism)
- Splitting (defense mechanism)
- (intrapsychic) defense mechanisms
- Borderline personality disorder
- Emotion regulation
- narcissism
literature
- Michael Ermann : Psychotherapeutic and psychosomatic medicine. A guide on a psychodynamic basis (Manual; Vol. 17). 2nd edition Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-17-014506-1 .
- Otto F. Kernberg : Severe personality disorders. Theory, diagnosis, treatment strategies (Severe personality disorders, 1986). 2nd edition Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-608-95417-1 .
- Heinz Müller-Pozzi: Psychoanalytic Thinking. An introduction . 3rd edition Huber, Bern 2004, ISBN 3-456-83877-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heinz Kohut : The future of psychoanalysis. Essays on general topics and on the psychology of the self (stw; vol. 125). 2nd edition Suhrkamp, Frankfurt / M. 1985, pp. 205-251, ISBN 3-518-27725-1 .
