Counterphobia
Under contra phobia (from latin contra , opposite, opposite, in contradiction with ' and ancient Greek φόβος Phobos , German , fear, fear, terror' ) is in the psychoanalysis and the risk research understood an ambiguous state of mind, diverge in the emotional state and behavior. Fear-charged as an actually felt essence and courage as a wanted form of expression and signal to the environment come into conflict and appear contrary. They find their expression in the fact that fear is felt and courage is demonstrated to the outside world.
Origin of the term
According to various sources, the term “counterphobia” was first used by the Austrian psychoanalyst Otto Fenichel (1897 to 1946). He first used it in his English-language publications . Under the designation "Counter-phobic-attitude" he wanted to denote a behavior in which the inner world of emotions and the outer appearance of a person enter into a blatant contrast.
Characteristic
From a psychopathological point of view, counteraphobia is an obsessive-compulsive disease . The psychotherapist Sven O. Hoffmann describes it as a neurotic disorder, which manifests itself as a constant striving to counter emerging fears again and again through actions that require a lot of courage :
“Patients whose active overcompensation of fear increasingly dominates life are referred to as counteraphobics from a psychodynamic point of view. These people are always forced to do what actually scares them, just as the original phobic is forced to avoid doing just that. A typical counter-phobic behavior would be, for example, if a patient with fear of heights makes mountaineering part of his leisure time, the overvalue of which then restricts him in another sense in a similar way to the averted fear of heights. "
The risk researcher Siegbert A. Warwitz describes the type of the counter-phobic as a daredevil against his will : In essence, a highly anxious person, the counter-phobic tries to suppress this unpleasant appearance in front of himself and to transform it into his ideal image. Ashamed of the negative social image of the fearful refuser, which he cannot endure and attracted by the nimbus of the hero and daredevil who sovereignly dominates all dangerous situations, he exposes himself to threatening situations that he really wants to avoid. He often even increases this in its dangerousness and the corresponding requirement of courage and overcoming fear in order to be sure that the longed-for message arrives in his environment and that it endures before his own self-respect. To do this, he has to prove himself again and again. Such behavior is usually triggered by a low level of self-confidence and the feeling or the fact that the human environment sees one as weak and unstable and that the peer group is regarded as an unreliable failure when in threatening situations moral courage , willingness to work and Solidarity are required. So the counter-phobic, often under the psychological pressure of a community, in the wake of a group dynamic process , lets himself be carried away against his own sense of security to a test of courage that he actually does not want and thinks he can take responsibility for.
Examples
The characteristic appearance of the counter-phobic, which has been thoroughly examined and described in risk research , can be found in literature , film and everyday media in many ways:
For example, the children's book author Erich Kästner, in his bestseller The Flying Classroom, created an impressive literary monument to the type of the adolescent counter-phobic with the figure of the extremely anxious student Uli: The fourteen-year-old Uli, who did not experience his fears and the derision and loss of respect that his classmates caused endures longer, grows beyond himself in this psychological emergency and undertakes to prove himself extremely courageous in front of the assembled school community with an extraordinary, highly risky demonstration that none of his classmates would ever dare. He jumps with an umbrella as a 'parachute' from the height of the climbing tower.
The American cult film " Because they don't know what they're doing " (Rebel Without a Cause) from 1955 with the youth idol James Dean is about a game of gamble that the young people call a "rabbit foot race", which involves a stolen car Speed up a cliff and only jump out of the vehicle as late as possible. The loser is branded as a coward (chicken) and despised in the group. So the group newcomer reluctantly decides to take the test of courage , which he himself recognized as insane , in order to live up to the new community's code of honor .
The psychologist Ulrich Aufmuth describes under the heading “Kühn aus Angst” the biographies of four classmates who emerged from a deep discomfort with their fearfulness, which was perceived as unpleasant, and from the hope of being able to get rid of the stigma of cowardice in this way turned towards the aura of the bold surrounding mountain climbing . They were guided by the intention to suppress their own experienced inferiority in this way and to create a new image for their comrades .
As part of his venture research, the experimental psychologist Siegbert A. Warwitz carried out numerous surveys among representatives from a wide variety of areas of society and found that counteraphobes are particularly often found in fields of activity and professional fields that bear the seal of heroism in public reputation and this also in their tradition and their self- image special care:
These include, for example, the academic striking associations , who until their legal prohibition on the "Paukboden" carried out so-called "compulsory mensuras" with sharp striking or stabbing weapons, where bloody injuries were deliberately accepted, so-called throws were desired as a badge of honor and where each other every “honorable” liaison brother had to prove himself more or less voluntarily as a “character test”, sometimes under pressure from the old men . Among them are the mostly secret, officially forbidden, but generally tolerated rites in the military and especially by special units that see themselves as conspiratorial communities and heroic troops. Whoever wants to be part of it has to prove through enduring extreme physical and psychological hardship tests up to self-denial that he can be accepted in the mostly lifelong union of initiates of the unit . Also act according to Warwitz Kontraphobiker service branches , those in the public presentation of films from and reports Nimbus of heroic adheres particularly attractive. So their choice falls on the mountain fighters , paratroopers , fighter pilots or submarine drivers , as the glorious community image is transferred to the individual of these units in an image-building manner.
meaning
From a behavioral point of view, counteraphobic behavior can certainly also have positive aspects. This includes the attempt to compensate for a weakness in character that has been recognized and cannot be borne by one's own strength.
As Aufmuth describes in his analysis of the mountaineering biographies, the four classmates managed, through their counter-phobic self-help, at least temporarily to free themselves from the suffering of inferiority and at least temporarily to stabilize their emotional state and achieve the desired recognition from the outside: “You have external To be able to erase the stigma of their earlier cowardice through the visible mountaineering tests of courage, ”he sums up the result of their efforts.
Erich Kästner even certifies the traumatized Uli of his novel a permanent release from his suffering through the counteraphobically induced act, which was widely admired: Despite the consequences of the most serious injuries that brought him to the hospital, the youngster according to Kästner managed to achieve the highest esteem not only from his schoolmates achieve, but even bring about a rethinking and understanding with his initially negative tutor. As the most important result, however, Kästner points out that Uli succeeded in finding his psychological balance and building a self-confidence with the deed and its effect, which was to determine his further life.
In the sense of confrontation therapy , according to Warwitz, it can indeed be possible, with expert guidance or, with the help of risk education tailored to the individual personality, to achieve lasting therapeutic effects by systematically learning to control fear appropriately in dosed demanding crisis situations.
See also
literature
- Ulrich Aufmuth: On the psychology of mountaineering . 2nd Edition. Frankfurt 1992.
- Ulrich Aufmuth: Risk Sports and Identity Problems , In: Sports Science. 3, 1983, pp. 249-270.
- Otto Fenichel: The counter-phobic attitude , In: H. Fenichel, D. Rapaport (Eds.): The collected papers of Otto Fenichel , London 1954.
- Sven O. Hoffmann: Neurotic disorders with pronounced fear development , In: Eckhardt-Henn, Heuft, Hochapfel, Hoffmann (Ed.): Neurotic disorders and psychosomatic medicine , Schattauer, Stuttgart 2009, pp. 92-141, ISBN = 9783794526192.
- Siegbert A. Warwitz: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings . 2nd, expanded edition. Cutter. Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1620-1 .
- Siegbert A. Warwitz: From the sense of the car. Why people face dangerous challenges. In: Deutscher Alpenverein (Ed.): Berg 2006 , Tyrolia Verlag, Munich-Innsbruck-Bozen, pp. 96–111, ISBN 3-937530-10-X .
Individual evidence
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Die Kontraphobie-Theory , In: Ders .: Sinnsuche im Wagnis. Life in growing rings . 2nd, expanded edition. Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 168–187.
- ↑ Ralph R. Greenson: Psychoanalytische Erkundungen , Klett, 1993, p. 87
- ↑ Otto Fenichel: The counter-phobic attitude , In: H. Fenichel, D. Rapaport (Eds.): The collected papers of Otto Fenichel , London 1954.
- ↑ Sven O. Hoffmann: Neurotic disorders with pronounced fear development , In: Eckhardt-Henn, Heuft, Hochapfel, Hoffmann (Ed.): Neurotic disorders and psychosomatic medicine , Schattauer, Stuttgart 2009, p. 109
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Die Kontraphobie-Theory , In: Ders .: Sinnsuche im Wagnis. Life in growing rings . 2nd, expanded edition. Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 168–187.
- ↑ Erich Kästner: The flying classroom , 154th edition, Dressler, Hamburg 1998
- ^ Ulrich Aufmuth: Risk sports and identity problems. In: Sports Science. 3, 1983, pp. 249-270.
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Die Kontraphobie-Theory , In: Ders .: Sinnsuche im Wagnis. Life in growing rings . 2nd, expanded edition. Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 169–174.
- ↑ Sven O. Hoffmann: Neurotic disorders with pronounced fear development , In: Eckhardt-Henn, Heuft, Hochapfel, Hoffmann (Ed.): Neurotic disorders and psychosomatic medicine , Schattauer, Stuttgart 2009, p. 109
- ^ Ulrich Aufmuth: Risk sports and identity problems. In: Sports Science. 3, 1983, p. 62.
- ↑ Erich Kästner: The flying classroom , 154th edition, Dressler, Hamburg 1998
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: From the sense of the car. Why people face dangerous challenges. In: Deutscher Alpenverein (Ed.): Berg 2006 , Tyrolia Verlag, Munich-Innsbruck-Bozen, pp. 96–111.