Encounters with totalitarian objects in the super-ego development of Generation Z adolescents

Abstract

Over the past three years we have encountered social processes that have shattered our steady way of living: the COVID pandemic, social unrests and splits after presidential elections, the war in Ukraine. Adults with a post-totalitarian personality have experienced a re-activation of their inner totalitarian objects, but “Gen Z” adolescents without the personal experience of living in a totalitarian system react differently to current realities. Practitioners are witnessing a dramatic increase in social anxieties and anorexia nervosa – psychopathologies characterized by the introjections and projections of intrusive controlling objects, a strict punitive super-ego that resembles the dynamics of inner totalitarian objects. This can be attributed to the increased exposure to the Internet during the COVID-related social isolation, with a decreased possibility for reality testing. The Internet acquired an overbearing influence on all domains of personality development for Generation Z individuals, including on the super-ego. The Internet houses totalitarian cyber-objects that increase their presence and influence in situations of social and developmental unrest, impinge on the development of psychic structures, and can lead to related pathological psychodynamics.