ADOLESCENTS’ PSYCHOLOGICAL BOUNDARIES DEPENDING ON THEIR DOMINANT SYSTEM OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PROTECTION: THE THEORETICAL FUNDAMENTALS

Abstract

The article reveals the connections between psychological defence mechanisms, psychological boundaries and levels of mental personality organisation at adolescence. The influence of mental formations on the development of the dominant system of protective mechanisms is considered. The internal self-delimitation and the external personality boundaries are investigated from the perspective of a developed form of the self. The model of the relationship between mental organisation and types of psychological boundaries is constructed that allows us to understand the organisation of a personality through their relationship with psychological defence systems. The defence mechanisms themselves are systematised in a historical aspect: from the initial views of Z. Freud to the modern views of O. Kernberg and N. Mac-Williams. Special attention is paid to such mental defences as fantasy and conversion. These protective mechanisms are examined through the prism of thinking formation and the work of interpretation. The article considers the internal self-delimitation and external psychological boundaries. From the position of psychological boundaries and self-delimitations, as well as boundary properties, we systematise the neurotic, borderline, and psychotic levels of personal organisation. As a result, a model is constructed, in which the interrelation between borders and defences is revealed in a new methodological vein. In particular, the proposed model helps not only to understand better the classical levels of personality organisation, but also to introduce and describe a mature level of personality organisation. The proposed model opens up an additional opportunity to look at the formation of the self boundaries as the central phase of human identity development. In particular, it was determined that in adverse cases, psychological boundaries are supported by exceptionally rough psychological defences and are similar to an impenetrable carapace; on the contrary, the vague mechanisms of psychological defence create conditions for co-dependent relationships. &nbsp