Особенности представления о психологическом здоровье у созависимых субъектов

Abstract

The article follows the previous installments in our series discussing the outcomes of a study in subjective representations of psychological health of an individual, a family, and a nation, as well as their psychological safety (2013–2014). The problem of codependency as a potential threat for the subject’s psychological health is treated here in the empirical aspect of researching the perceptions of psychological health by codependent persons. We compare the concepts of “mental” and “psychological” health, and closely scrutinize the concept of “codependency”. It is shown that the concept of psychological health is significantly broader than that of mental health. The term “psychological health” is applied to the individual as a whole and indicates manifestations of spirituality. Psychological health is understood specifically as the psychological aspect of mental health, i.e. the processes which allow an individual to reach maturity in the future, to keep continuous self-development, and to achieve vitally important objectives. Specific variables of an individual’s psychological health are linked with their particular behavioral patterns. We define codependence as behavior motivated by a dependence of the significant other. A codependent person often forgets that he/she is in contact with another human being and perceives their joy and misery as his/her own, as if forgetting about him/herself. As a result, codependent people lose their selves and their picture of real life becomes distorted. It is shown that the criteria of psychological health include the same aspects of personal development and behavior as cited by those free from codependency. Indeed, harmony, integrity, equanimity, adequacy, etc., are extremely important components of psychological health. It is these qualities that a codependent person is deprived of. The article summarizes the outcomes of empirical research done in 2013–2014. Its participants were 54 people, aged 19–45, mostly students of Moscow’s higher education institutions. We have come up with two hypotheses: (1) that there are general and particular meanings of the concepts connected with psychological health of a personality and a family as developed by codependents and non-codependents; (2) that general perceptions of psychological health of a personality and a family differ between codependents and non-codependents. Both hypotheses were proved true at the qualitative and quantitative levels. We have shown that codependent persons have their own perceptions of psychological health. It is probably due to their specific behavioral patterns, value orientations and value-based self-determination.