Crystallization (psychology)
Psychic crystallization was a metaphor introduced by Sigmund Freud that symbolized the acquisition of new symptoms in the psychoanalytic explanation of hysteria and other psychogenic neuroses . (See also Studies of Hysteria from 1895.)
Historically, it alluded to the then rapidly advancing knowledge of inorganic chemistry, which was widely recognized by the educated middle class . Although it is well suited to clarify some facts, it has probably faded into the background due to the rigid comparison in the progress of the development of psychodynamic theories.
The basis of the metaphor is the now generally known observation that new symptoms in a patient do not appear randomly distributed in the psychological topic , but always attach to other, already existing symptoms . The character of a neurosis is always preserved and prognostically not everything can be expected from a specific patient , but only what individually fits into the picture.
Freud said that this reminds in a certain way of crystal growth , in which new substrate from the environment is attached to the already solidified crystal body and enlarges it. As is known, surface properties, breaks, phonons , unevenness, etc. are adopted and replicated. As with the crystal , certain features of a symptom can be seen in many other, acquired symptoms. It seemed as if the younger symptom had been deposited like a layer on the older one.
He concluded from this that it makes sense for the analysis to first treat more recent symptoms and gradually work your way to the core, as if along the layers of a crystal to be scratched off. In his view, causal therapy should be equated with the processing of the entire crystal body, which should be dissolved and its representations integrated into the surrounding, primary structure of consciousness . The ideas could not be eliminated.
The graph illustrates the older Freudian view, according to which the symptoms would develop from a secondary consciousness . He changed this view with later work on the structural model of the psyche .
Swell:
- Sigmund Freud, Josef Breuer: Studies on Hysteria. Franz Deuticke, Leipzig + Vienna 1895. Reprint: 6th edition. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1991, ISBN 3596104467 .