Externalization (psychology)

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As externalization in is psychology shifting "internal settings," the only single individuals are accessible in principle, called "outward". These " settings " include: a. simple or more complex sensations , feelings , motives , fantasies or ascriptions . Figuratively speaking, externalization represents a bridge from the inner to the outer world. When “shifting to the outside” is spoken of, this refers to processes that ultimately affect communication and interpersonal perceptionserve and are therefore ideally accessible to her. Processes of externalization are also in the service of self-perception , the prerequisite for every external perception. In addition to the internalization processes, the processes of externalization are of decisive importance and, because of their interaction, are essential for psychological maturation and thus for psychological functions in general. Overall, this includes the processes of intersubjective communication as well as those of dream work , expression psychology and individuation , but also of the creatively expressive in religion, culture, art, craft and science. Many of these processes, however, are not immediately clear and easy to understand, but rather require interpretation .

Somatic theories

Since externalization is a general term that is not limited to psychological processes, but also includes physical processes and maturation processes, questions of psychophysiological attitudes or psychological structuring can also be connected with it.

Functional circles

Functional circuit as a control circuit on the vegetative level

Stavros Mentzos understands the psyche together with CG Jung as a self-regulating system between the areas of the unconscious and the conscious . This addresses the principle of functional circles. Functional groups exist i. w. S. however not only on the vegetative level, but must also be accepted on the animal level etc. Overall, these are processes that can be understood as raising awareness. ( Upward effect ). The arrows pointing upwards in the figure “Functional Circle” coincide at least partially with the functions of externalization, since the vegetative of course only represents a part of the psychic system.

A classic example of cooperation

Pygmalion and Galatea, Jean-Léon Gérôme , 1890

A classic example of the interaction of externalization and internalization, which also illustrates the role of the creatively expressive in art, is the mythological figure of Pygmalion . Mentzos emphasizes that this interaction - in Pygmalion's creative production and the reaction of Venus - is not a senseless back and forth, but an increasing external concretization (of the productive work of Pygmalion) and thus, conversely, a continuous process self-objectification, as it also occurs in a state of infatuation . This developmental psychological meaning can also be taken from the title of the work "Metamorphoses" (transformation) by Ovid, the narrator of the mythology of Pygmalion.

Stages of development

In human development there are different possibilities of externalization in different phases. Mentzos names such externalization forms, which occur preferentially in certain development stages: excorporation , projection , self-objectification .

Spin-off

The term separation has gained importance for the understanding of illness in psychiatry. With externalization as a model, various displacement mechanisms can be combined. Externalization is therefore not only a view that can be used in developmental psychology , but also a concept that is common in psychopathology . One can speak of pathological splitting off when the balance of necessarily ambivalent attitudes shifts too much through repression or is too restricted by them. The defense mechanism of projective identification has Jean Piaget described as externalization in such early stages of development, in which no subject-object separation had taken place. Here parts of the subject would be transferred to the partner. This then becomes the pursuer. The identification with it in turn favors the development of a threatening superego . This in turn contributes to the development of an aggressive-destructive readiness to react . In therapeutic situations, as a result of the split, the analyst represents one or the other part of the analysand's personality structure.

Interpretation at the subject level

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Elementary particles
Scheme by Oppenheim and Putnam, 1958. The upper layer should be composed of the lower layer and should be able to be reduced to this.

Eugen Drewermann compared the methods of interpreting creative and productive psychological phenomena used by psychoanalysis with those used by analytical psychology . He came to the conclusion that Sigmund Freud mainly uses the reductive method , while CG Jung uses the final method to a greater extent . The interpretation of creative and productive psychological phenomena also includes in principle that of psychopathologically abnormal phenomena such as B. those of the plus symptoms . In the scheme shown, Freud's psychoanalytic interpretation would mainly be from top to bottom, while that of Jung's school would focus in the opposite direction. It does not take into account that Freud did not use a purely causal-mechanistic method of reduction, but rather a historical-objectifying method . The application of a causal-mechanical reductionism in psychology means that this itself can be traced back to (neuro-) biology and the social relationships in turn to (social) psychology. The role of causal-mechanical aspects in psychoanalysis is mentioned in more detail in the explanations on the → organodynamic theory . The importance that Freud gave to sexuality in his work emphasizes the tracing back to biological connections. CG Jung builds his psychological interpretations a. a. on the subject level . This means that, for example, the persons appearing in a dream as manifest dream contents “are related to subjective factors belonging entirely to one's own psyche”. In this example of the assessment of dream work , manifest dream contents are not only reduced to latent dream contents . Manifest dream contents are rather understood as positive psychological development in order to convey a certain, possibly hidden meaning expression to the individual ( subjective and objective amplification ). Jung emphasizes the unmistakability of such phenomena (i.e. persons appearing in dreams) with external objective givens and facts, by pointing out that the image of an object ( imago ) in our psyche is never identical with this object, but rather seems at most similar to him.

Peripheralization

Peripherization not only addresses certain shamanistic healing practices in ethno- psychiatry, but also the shifting of inner mental states and needs ( prelogic ) into the collective and cultural responsibility of institutional help and self-help groups . The same applies to help through collective action, individual self-help, also through activities of an artistic nature.

literature

  • Luc Ciompi : inner world - outer world . The emergence of time, space and psychological structures. Vandenhoeck Collection, Göttingen 1988, ISBN 3-525-01411-2

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Mentzos, Stavros : Neurotic Conflict Processing. Introduction to the psychoanalytic theory of neuroses, taking into account more recent perspectives. © 1982 Kindler, Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt 1992, ISBN 3-596-42239-6 ; (a) on “Overview of all job information”: pages 46 ff., 69, 263, 294 f .; (b + c) re. “Self-perception”: page 69; (d) Re. “Interaction between externalization and internalization”: page 51; (e) Re. “Externalization within development”: page 48.
  2. ↑ P. Ovidius Naso : Metamorphoses . Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart, 1994, ISBN 3-15-001360-7 ; Liber decimus, page 526, verses 243 ff.
  3. ↑ Mentzos, Stavros : Psychodynamic models in psychiatry. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2 1992, ISBN 3-525-45727-8 ; Pages 38, 61, 69, 95, 125
  4. ↑ Loch, Wolfgang : On the theory, technology and therapy of psychoanalysis . S. Fischer Conditio humana (edited by Thure von Uexküll & Ilse Grubrich-Simitis ) 1972, ISBN 3-10-844801-3 , page 121.
  5. ↑ Drewermann, Eugen : Depth Psychology and Exegesis 1 . The truth of forms. Dream, myth, fairy tale, saga and legend. dtv non-fiction book 30376, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-423-30376-X , © Walter-Verlag, Olten 1984, ISBN 3-530-16852-1 ; Page 154 ff.
  6. ^ A b Jung, Carl Gustav : Psychological types . Collected Works. Walter-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, paperback, special edition, volume 6, ISBN 3-530-40081-5 ; § 817 f.
  7. ↑ Drewermann, Eugen : Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let your hair down. Grimm's fairy tales interpreted in terms of depth psychology. dtv Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-423-35056-3 ; to Stw. subjective interpretation: page 8.
  8. ^ Jacobi, Jolande : The psychology of CG Jung . An introduction to the complete works. With a foreword by CG Jung. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt March 1987, ISBN 3-596-26365-4 ; on “Amplification”: pages 81, 87 ff., 92 f., 102.
  9. ^ Georges Devereux : Normal and abnormal. Essays on general ethnopsychiatry. [1974] Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt, ISBN 3-518-06390-1 ; P. 286 ff. On tax authority "Peripherization".