Infantile Personality Research Articles

Социально-психологический подход к исследованию личностного инфантилизма

This paper describes the socio-psychological approach to the study of personal infantilism. The author confirms the relevance of applying the methods of social constructionism in the research focused on this issue and offers to interpret personal infantilism as a pole of the binary social construct “personal maturity — personal infantilism”, which helps to evaluate the conformity or discrepancy between the achieved level of personal development and the standards of a “mature personality”. It is shown that the consistent application of the socio-psychological approach to the study of personal infantilism can largely expand the field of research of this phenomenon and, in particular, help to explore its content and determinants at various levels of analysis: social, interpersonal and intrapersonal. The theoretical assumptions are illustrated by the empirical research findings that reveal the contents of the construct “personal maturity — personal infantilism”, the phenomenology of personal infantilism at different stages of life, specific to each stage of life infantilizing practices, the role of self-assessment in the continuum “mature personality — infantile personality” in the human regulation of one’s own social behaviour. The author describes the limitations of the socio-psychological approach to the study of personal infantilism and the ways to overcome them.

Children's Ideals as a Philosophical Topic

AbstractSeveral decades ago psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut pointed out that ideals should be seen as a core dimension of the infantile personality — a dimension that is crucial for the self's formation and the flourishing of the self. In this essay, Krassimir Stojanov begins by reconstructing Kohut's conception of children's ideals, and then, drawing on Axel Honneth's philosophical conception of intersubjective recognition, he explicates the social and pedagogical prerequisites for the formation of ideals and their transformation into values. According to Honneth's conception, the emergence and development of a coherent, autonomous self depend on various forms of intersubjective recognition, specifically empathy, cognitive respect, and social esteem. One of Stojanov's central claims here is that the educational practice of philosophizing with children is probably best equipped to provide children and adolescents with those experiences of intersubjective recognition that enable the articulation of infantile ideals and the transformation of those ideals into values. This practice is essential to development of the self because these articulations and transformations are basic preconditions for living a free and autonomous human life. Moreover, this practice is also important to the “rechilding” of philosophy — that is, the process of revitalizing philosophy through getting in touch with children's ideals. Thus, Stojanov concludes, these ideals deserve social esteem precisely because of their childish character.

PLACES OF PERSONAL COMPETENCIES IN THE INFANITY STRUCTURE

The article is devoted to the analysis of empirical research of basic personal competencies as an additional mechanism for the study of infantile personality. The study of the problem of infantilism of modern youth is impossible without considering the very process of its life formation. The need for a study of infantilism as a personal construct that can inhibit the activity of the individual becomes relevant and in demand both from a theoretical and a practical point of view, however, despite its apparent significance, this problem has not been fully developed in modern psychological science, except for individual directions, which mainly relate to the clinical and age-old manifestations of infantilism. Competent approach to the study of infantilism in science is absent. The relevant competencies are represented and empirically confirmed: external competence of internal family relationships and internal competence of family relations, external competence of material and social status, internal competence of material and social status, external competence of the valeological sphere and internal competence of the valeological sphere, external competence of professional activity and internal competence of professional activity.

Transformations of early infantile experiences: A 6-month-old in psychoanalysis

The aim of the paper is to study the theoretical and technical tools for psychoanalysis adapted to an infantile analysand's requirements. The author presents the case of a 6-month-old boy with his mother in psychoanalytical sessions four times a week; the analysis was terminated after six weeks. After the first two sessions the disturbances between the infant and the mother disappeared from everyday life but continued with increasing intensity as an emotional storm in the sessions during three weeks up to a 12-day break. During and after the break everyday life continued without disturbances. After the break the emotional storm continued in the sessions but abated and was replaced by playing. The infant's creation of a 'fort-da' game with his pacifier indicated a transformation of the mental functioning. The analysis could then be terminated. The study of the process indicates good reasons to adapt psychoanalytical concepts to the prerequisite of the infantile personality and to use the concepts of 'unconscious', 'infantile repression', 'substitute formation', 'return of the infantile repressed', 'infantile transference', 'splitting', 'xKy', 'reverie' and 'containment' as some of the theoretical tools for understanding the infantile personality in a clinical psychoanalytical setting.

Transformations of early infantile experiences: A 6‐month‐old in psychoanalysis

The aim of the paper is to study the theoretical and technical tools for psychoanalysis adapted to an infantile analysand's requirements. The author presents the case of a 6‐month‐old boy with his mother in psychoanalytical sessions four times a week; the analysis was terminated after six weeks. After the fi rst two sessions the disturbances between the infant and the mother disappeared from everyday life but continued with increasing intensity as an emotional storm in the sessions during three weeks up to a 12‐day break. During and after the break everyday life continued without disturbances. After the break the emotional storm continued in the sessions but abated and was replaced by playing. The infant's creation of a fort‐da game with his pacifi er indicated a transformation of the mental functioning. The analysis could then be terminated. The study of the process indicates good reasons to adapt psychoanalytical concepts to the prerequisite of the infantile personality and to use the concepts of unconscious, infantile repression, substitute formation, return of the infantile repressed, infantile transference, splitting, xKy, reverie and containment as some of the theoretical tools for understanding the infantile personality in a clinical psychoanalytical setting.

Psychosomatic personality structure--fact or fiction?

This article describes the different approaches to explaining psychosomatic disease according to the gradual scientific development of this concept in the course of medical history. Whereas Freud and also some of the later psychoanalytical authors considered psychosomatic disease as a special form of neurosis, recent efforts are directed at working out a specific psychosomatic personality structure which can be differentiated against that of the neurotic or psychotic personality. Besides the concept of the "infantile personality" formulated as early as 1948 by Ruesch in respect of the psychosomatic patient, specific characteristics of a psychosomatic personality have been outlined during the sixties by a French working team as part of a concept which they called "operative thinking"; independent of this development, American authors have also defined such specific characteristics under the designation "alexithymia". The central aspect of these definitions concerns a disturbance of affective perception and of the ability to psychic or affective working-over. The critical discussion of these approaches is carried out both on a theoretical and on a methodical empirical level. Basing on an empirical study conducted by the author himself, methodical drawbacks of previous studies are discovered and pointed out.

Hysteria.

The hysterical personality means an infantile personality plus ‘something extra’. This ‘extra’ which complements the infantilism of hysteria, are determined by the following constellation of factors: (1) an immature, underdeveloped, emotional personality with a feeble identity; (2) due to the relatively great need for warding off emotional influences, the personality is more vulnerable to emotional stress; (3) a predisposition to deficient repression, leading to insufficient mental defence; (4) an auxiliary auto-regulation in the form of states of lowered consciousness and convulsions or fits, to keep the overwhelming emotional influences outside his awareness. Freud elucidated the dynamic relationships in an impressive way; he described all that can be called neurotic in hysteria. But we know that hysteria encompasses more than various types of neurosis, and can also manifest itself in psychotic and psychopathic-like patterns of behaviour.

The process of infantilization.

Infantilization was identified by David Levy as one form of maternal over-protection. Recent research on child neglect in rural Appalachia suggested an intergenerational “cycle of infantilization” among mothers. A study was made, linking IQ decrement among a group of mildly retarded children to specific child-rearing practices of their mothers. The results clarify the development of the infantile personality, especially among handicapped children.

INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BLOOD PRESSURE RESPONSES TO MECHOLYL AND PERSONALITY VARIABLES

ABSTRACTThis study was designed to investigate the interrelationships betwen personility variables measured by both the Blacky Pictures and the Defense Preference Inquiry, and epinephrine‐like and norepinephrine‐like blood pressure reactions to intramuscular Mecholyl.Thirty hospitalized, open ward, male, acute, psychiatric patients were used as subjects. To evaluate the degree of relationship, phe coefficients were computed betwen the two blood pressure categories and the twenty‐two personality dimensions.A norepinephrine‐like blood pressure reaction to Mecholyl was associated with a rether primitive and infantile personality constellation, characterized by a tendency to utilize regression and projection as preferred ego defences. The epinephrine‐like blood pressure to Mecholyl was related to a strong attachment to mother, a lesser tendency toward regression, and the utilization of reaction formation as the preferred ago defense.The results of this study were quite similar to that previously reported by Funkenstein. Thus, the present data give further support to the hypothesis that the way an individual characteristically adjusts at the physiological level to a chemical stres is related to his underlying personality structure, and to his characteristic way of handling psychological stress.

The psychosomatic concept in dentistry.

Summary This paper presents the case report and psychodynamics of an accident-prone infantile personality in dental treatment for numerous bizarre subluxations of the jaw, which recurred even after surgical removal of the condyles, who finally blinds himself. A study such as this one points to the urgent need for psychiatric orientation in dentistry.

MARY ROSE

British Journal of Medical PsychologyVolume 2, Issue 1 p. 68-80 MARY ROSE A STUDY OF THE INFANTILE PERSONALITY† CONSTANCE LONG, CONSTANCE LONGSearch for more papers by this author CONSTANCE LONG, CONSTANCE LONGSearch for more papers by this author First published: October 1921 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8341.1921.tb00345.x † Read before the Medical Section of the British Psychological Society, March 23, 1921. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume2, Issue1October 1921Pages 68-80 RelatedInformation