Psychic Functions Research Articles

La imaginación como función interpretativa: consecuencias para la educación a través del arte

A lo largo de la historia de la filosofía occidental la definición del concepto de “imaginación” ha estado basado en dimensiones como lo corporal, la intuición sensible, la percepción, las imágenes mentales, la memoria, la fantasía, la espontaneidad, la combinación de ideas y la creatividad. Algunos epistemólogos contemporáneos que se remiten a la filosofía analítica de Kant han intentado recuperar la conceptualización de la imaginación en el terreno de lo cognitivo. En el presente trabajo recorremos un camino diferente. Nos remitimos al enfoque psicológico de la “imaginación creadora” desarrollado por el francés Théodule-Armand Ribot a finales del siglo XIX; y por Lev Vygotsky, quien treinta años después dio continuidad a muchas de las ideas de Ribot. Con base en los postulados de ambos psicólogos, proponemos comprender la imaginación como una función psíquica que también subyace a todo proceso de interpretación/compresión. En función de ese objetivo se explora un paralelo conceptual entre la descripción psicológica del mecanismo creativo de la imaginación y la noción semiótica propuesta por Umberto Eco de “invención de funciones sígnicas”, intentando esbozar la complejidad del fenómeno de la recepción del arte. Desde esa perspectiva interdisciplinar se exploran finalmente algunas de las consecuencias de la teoría desarrollada para una educación a través del arte.

Séances par téléphone dans le contexte du Covid-19 : le cadre et ses limites

To deal with the Covid 19 pandemic, health protection measures require changes to our clinical practices. Faced up with the unprecedented nature of this situation, the liberal psychotherapist is led to rethink some aspects of the framework of his practice in order to preserve the thread of the transferential relationship. The authors develop a clinical reflection on the clinical setting in a pandemic period by exploring in particular the dynamics of telephone sessions. For telephone interviews, the question of the sound envelope is central, in particular regarding the psychic function of silence. We choose to illustrate our point with short vignettes than by relying on long-term clinical cases, more likely to represent the variety of new clinical situations encountered and the questions that accompany them. This article introduces his point by recounting the plague epidemic in ancient Greece to show the impact of the environment on humans and its collective fantasy implications. Being faced up with death, contamination, the invisible enemy brings out a palpable concern. It is indeed quite remarkable that these same reactions and concerns in front of death caused by the pandemic match whith what is related by Thucydides who survived the plague, which affected Athens during the Peloponnesian War. In another context, Winnicott highlights the place and importance of the therapeutic environment. It is both a question of adjusting the framework according to the context while maintaining certain intangible aspects representing the permanence of the link and its framework. A framework cannot exist without being kept, which is equivalent to thinking of the framework above all as an internal framework, questioning the clinician about what he values and what he makes sense in his practice. In the current context, these questions arise from the perspective of a certain flexibility, depending on the human context (child, adolescent, consultations, etc.) or external context (crisis linked to a virus, etc.) showing that it is more than never question of exercising on a case-by-case basis, taking into account changes in the environment. The initial observation during this period of confinement concerns the fact that some patients contact a therapist for the first time by telephone and wish to initiate psychotherapy (during this period) when they explain that such an initiative was not possible. despite the difficulties already encountered in the past. But there is also the opposite case: patients who have no intention of continuing the work already started during this time. Thus, faced up with the injunction of confinement, they show themselves in the psychic impossibility of following the treatment by other means such as, for example, telephone sessions. In this perspective, the silence on the phone takes on a different tone; silence reveals itself to be a source of greater anxiety than in presence: the presence of bodies, of its movements perceptible as imperceptible, of a gesture that carries or accompanies the senses, breathing, the visual context of the office and of its “decor”, represent as many essential elements in the usual capacity of the frame; in the absence of these basic sensory elements, silence can be experienced as a void, or even a gap in the bond, opening Pandora's box of paranoid fantasies acting unconsciously. If silence is representative of the whole framework, it promotes in this context the partialization of the clinician's body reduced to one ear and not to a whole body. Here, it is the change of framework that mobilizes the difference, established by Mr. Klein, between the partial and total object; this circumstance neo-framework could therefore call for regressive movements, undoing the silence of its symbolic function when the bodies are present.

Is the Cerebellum Involved in the Nervous Control of the Immune System Function?

According to the views of psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology, many interactions exist between nervous, endocrine and immune system the purpose of which is to achieve adaptive measures restoring an internal equilibrium (homeostasis) following stress conditions. The center where these interactions converge is the hypothalamus. This is a center of the autonomic nervous system that controls the visceral systems, including the immune system, through both the nervous and neuroendocrine mechanisms. The nervous mechanisms are based on nervous circuits that bidirectionally connect hypothalamic neurons and neurons of the sympathetic and parasympathetic system; the neuroendocrine mechanisms are based on the release by neurosecretory hypothalamic neurons of hormones that target the endocrine cells and on the feedback effects of the hormones secreted by these endocrine cells on the same hypothalamic neurons. Moreover, the hypothalamus is an important subcortical center of the limbic system that controls through nervous and neuroendocrine mechanisms the areas of the cerebral cortex where the psychic functions controlling mood, emotions, anxiety and instinctive behaviors take place. Accordingly, various studies conducted in the last decades have indicated that hypothalamic diseases may be associated with immune and/or psychic disorders. Various researches have reported that the hypothalamus is controlled by the cerebellum through a feedback nervous circuit, namely the hypothalamocerebellar circuit, which bi-directionally connects regions of the hypothalamus, including the immunoregulatory ones, and related regions of the cerebellum. An objective of the present review was to analyze the anatomical bases of the nervous and neuroendocrine mechanisms for the control of the immune system and, in particular, of the interaction between hypothalamus and cerebellum to achieve the immunoregulatory function. Since the hypothalamus represents the link through which the immune functions may influence the psychic functions and vice versa, the cerebellum, controlling several regions of the hypothalamus, could be considered as a primary player in the regulation of the multiple functional interactions postulated by psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology.

Epidemiological Characteristics of Major Depression of Hospitalized Patients in Psychiatric Hospital “Demir Hisar” – Demir Hisar for a Five Year Period from 2013 to 2017

BACKGROUND: Severe depression is a mental disorder with a wide range of changes in psychic functions, primarily of affectivity, and is manifested by dysphoric mood and reductive changes in cognitive, conative, and other psychic dynamics, with the presence of psychosomatic complaints and suicidal thoughts. There is always a triad of symptoms: Alteration of affectivity, anhedonia, and low energy with fatigue, but in her clinical picture, there are other symptoms, such as feeling guilty and helpless, obsessed with “black thoughts” with loss of confidence in themselves, with hopelessness, loss of appetite, and weight loss with present insomnia or hypersomnia, and more frequent thinking about death due to the feeling of worthlessness of life. This mental illness covers a vast area of the affective life of a human with a broad spectrum classified by ICD - 10- F 32, F 32.2, and F 32.3.
 AIM: The main goal is to determine the total number of patients with the major depression treated at “Demir Hisar” Psychiatric Hospital for a period of 5 years, retrospectively in 2013 until 2017 and to determine the impact of socio-demographic variables as risk factors and predictors.
 METHODS: The study is retrospective, and the necessary parameters for achieving the goals of the research are provided by analyzing the medical histories of all hospitalized patients treated in psychiatric hospitals Demir Hisar in the period from 2013 to 2017. Incidence rates and indexes of the dynamics of hospitalized patients with major depression were determined.
 RESULTS: About 61.8% of the patients are men and 38.2% women. Patients with no education and elementary school were 64.5% versus patients with high school and university 35.5% and are significantly underpowered. Regarding the employment status, 38.2% of patients are unemployed, and 61.8% of patients are employed. According to the cross-sectional study, 64.7% of men without education have severe depression and live in the city, and 53.3% of women with secondary education live in urban areas (city), meaning rural residence is associated with a reduced rate of severe depression.
 CONCLUSION: We can conclude that socio-demographic characteristics – age, gender, marital status, level of education, employment/unemployment status, and place of residence are related to the severity of depression.

Parental attitudes to the Australian anti-bullying Safe Schools program: a critical discourse analysis

LGBTIQ children and adolescents experience disproportionate levels of bullying. Safe Schools, an Australian anti-bullying program, has recently been a site of public debate, with parents and their imagined concerns being central to the debate. This study investigated how parents construct gender, sexuality, and bullying, in relation to Safe Schools. Utilising Critical Discourse Analysis, we analysed 11 parent interviews and identified four broad discursive themes: heterosexual anxiety, transhysteria, the contested ecology of bullying, and resistance. Many parents feared that children will be harmed mentally and sexually by exposure to the program, and that bullying is an isolated phenomenon. These attitudes serve a social function of maintaining heterosexual and cisgender hegemony, and a psychic function of disavowing the fluid nature of subjectivity. There was also evidence of resistance to these attitudes, with many contending that Safe Schools is necessary, due to bullying being viewed as a social phenomenon informed by homophobia and transphobia. Hostility towards transgender people was notable amongst parents. The discourses identified in this research highlight the strength of current anxieties around children and sexual subjectivity and how they function to undermine the lives of LGBTIQ people, including children who would benefit most from a meaningful implementation of Safe Schools.

A religiosidade e sua influência no processo de cura terapêutico

A terapia desperta arquétipos e funções psíquicas desconhecidas à consciência humana. Neste caminho, este artigo objetiva pensar a relação entre a religiosidade e o processo de cura no período terapêutico, por meio do arquétipo do curador ferido. O terapeuta, ao ativar suas próprias feridas, inicia um processo curativo juntamente ao paciente, num jogo de projeções e transferências. Através da leitura de produções junguianas e de autores da Psicologia Analítica, foi possível delinear este estudo teórico. O terapeuta, desempenhando o papel de função transcendente do paciente, leva-o a ativar seu arquétipo do curador ferido, a imagem de uma transcendência religiosa.

MEMÓRIAS DE UMA MOÇA BEM-COMPORTADA: ANÁLISE DA OBRA PELO VIÉS DA TEORIA HISTÓRICO-CULTURAL

O artigo objetiva compreender o conceito de memória na Teoria Histórico-cultural, envolvendo a percepção do desenvolvimento dessa função psíquica superior em diferentes períodos da formação humana, em contraposição à forma como o desenvolvimento psíquico é apresentado ao leitor de Memórias de uma moça bem-comportada de Simone de Beauvoir. Muitos escritores abordam a temática memória por diferentes vieses, sejam eles na construção de cenários fictícios que relembram uma fase da vida, ou ainda, com a intencionalidade de desenvolver concepções filosóficas como é o caso de Simone nessa obra autobiográfica. A metodologia consiste na análise dialética do conceito de memória e como é apresentado o desenvolvimento psíquico nas recordações de vida da personagem principal da obra de Simone de Beauvoir, mediante a revisão bibliográfica dos estudos de Vigotski, fundador dessa corrente teórica e de estudiosos brasileiros. A análise permite considerar que a autora, no que concerne ao desenvolvimento da memória, perfaz um caminho de descrição de suas vivências muito próximas das considerações do psicólogo russo acerca do desenvolvimento psíquico.

Displacement trauma: complex states of personal, collective and intergenerational fragmentation and their intergenerational transmission

Originally presented at the Journal's one day conference entitled 'Displacement: Contemporary Traumatic Experience' held in London in November 2019, this paper expands on the author's theory of the implicit psychological organizing gestalt, an associated pattern of psychic functions which operate in an integrated way to simultaneously structure and organize our experience of self-cohesion and self-continuity. The gestalt, which implicitly links the formation of psychic skin, body image, cultural skin and both personal and cultural identity with place, functions as an emergent non-conscious permanent presence or background 'constant'. It develops over time and emerges out of embodied emotional experiencing with the total environment - both human and non-human. The author argues that it is the rupture of this gestalt and the disorganizing consequences of its loss which underlies the experience of displacement trauma. If disruptions in the formation of the gestalt and/or its later rupture remain unrecognized and unrepresented then the absence creates a void which can be intergenerationally transmitted. Case material is presented which describes this and which highlights the ways in which the gestalt can contribute to our understanding of collective displacement anxiety, cultural trauma and cultural complexes.

Ser e estar professor na educação infantil: significações em movimento

O artigo que se apresenta tem por objetivo expor uma reflexão sobre o ser e estar professor na Educação Infantil em relação à organização do processo de ensino-aprendizagem para este segmento. É uma pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa, fundamentada na perspectiva da Teoria Histórico-Cultural (THC), na qual foram utilizadas as pesquisas: bibliográfica, documental e de campo. A pesquisa bibliográfica tomou como referência autores como: Vigotski, Elkonin, Leontiev, Davídov, a pesquisa documental referenciou o marco oficial norteador da Educação Infantil e a pesquisa de campo se desenvolveu por meio de entrevistas de professores que atuam nesse nível de ensino. Foram utilizados, como instrumentos de coleta dos dados, uma ficha de registro das informações dos documentos e da bibliografia selecionada e entrevista semiestruturada. Foram entrevistados professores que atuam em escolas municipais de Educação Infantil, localizadas na zona rural do município de São José do Mipibu-RN. Considerando a necessidade de apreender os sentidos atribuídos pelos sujeitos participantes da pesquisa em relação ao objeto de estudo, os dados obtidos nas entrevistas foram analisados em consonância com a proposta metodológica dos núcleos de significação, cunhada por Aguiar e Ozella (2006), em conformidade com o método analítico objetivo de Vigotski (1984). Na conclusão da pesquisa apresentamos contribuições para o aprimoramento da organização do ensino-aprendizagem na Educação Infantil, proporcionando aos professores refletirem sobre as relações entre a organização dos processos de ensino-aprendizagem e o desenvolvimento das funções psíquicas superiores das crianças.

From the Principle of Inertia to the Death Drive: The Influence of the Second Law of Thermodynamics on the Freudian Theory of the Psychical Apparatus.

In the Freudian theory of the psychical apparatus, the introduction from the 1920s onward of the second drive dualism appears as a major turning point. The idea of a “death drive,” first expressed in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Freud, 1920), is generally considered to be a new concept, one that represents a break with Freud’s previous thinking. It has often surprised the scholars because it seemed, at first sight, difficult to reconcile with the idea of the singularity of living organisms within which the psychical functions form an integral part. Our research aims to demonstrate that the theory of the death drive does not represent a complete change in direction for Freud. It is present, in essence, in his earliest work, to the extent that the “principle of inertia” described in 1895 in A Project for a Scientific Psychology (Freud, 1895) can be seen as a precursor to the death drive. Based on a reading of Freud’s early formulations of his ideas, we aim to bring to light how certain aporias that seem inherent to the concept of the death drive can be overcome if we consider them in the context of an epistemological model that draws on the paradigms of physics which were conveyed by the Helmholtz School. Namely, we can consider the idea of death drive in reference to the principle of entropy and the laws of thermodynamics.

ВIДНOВЛEННЯ ПCИXIЧНOЇ CТIЙКOCТI КOМБAТAНТIВ ЯК ВAЖЛИВA УМOВA ЗБEРEЖEННЯ ЇXНЬOГO ПCИXIЧНOГO ЗДOРOВ`Я

Psychological maintenance of process of proceeding in psychical firmness of combatants as important condition of maintenance of their psychical health and effective implementation of professional tasks is exposed in the article. Marked, that in psychological literature renewal is the synonym of rehabilitation, that envisages the complex of events, broken functions of organism and capacity sent to renewal. Essence of rehabilitation can be deeper clear from positions of approach of the systems, where a rehabilitation presents simultaneously: sweep (renewal and maintenance of status of personality); a process (what has biopsychological and social mechanisms) and method of going are near a man that needs a rehabilitation.Some of researchers examine a social-psychological rehabilitation as variety of psychological help, in that part in that she is sent to proceeding in the lost (broken) psychical possibilities and health of servicemen. It is found out, that a psychological rehabilitation can be the constituent of social-psychological readaptation, when it touches a help to the people with the symptoms of psychical disharmonies. However she can be and independent activity, in the cases of her orientation on proceeding in psychical functions and personality qualities of participants of battle actions, that got a battle psychical trauma.Proceeding in psychical firmness of combatant is the complex system of psychological events, sent to harmonization of him internal will become the way of personality changes in his psyche with the aim of overcoming of negative mental conditions. Essence of proceeding in psychical firmness consists in realization of different influences on the psyche of combatant, by means of that becomes possible to bring down the level of neuropsychic tension and to influence the same on the acceleration of processes of proceeding in an organism on the whole.Among directions of support and increase of psychological firmness distinguish such: professionally-activitional; social-psychological; individually-psychological. The features of proceeding in psychical firmness of combatants consist in that motion of renewal process of combatants depends on terms, in what of them get after a return from the zone of AТO, creation of positive atmosphere will assist the change of their mental condition; character of the psyche injuring events creates additional barriers during development of corresponding adaptation-subject processes, and the temporal, complete or partial isolation of participants of the battle operating under maintenance of natural social connections will provide the acceleration of renewal period; the psychological informing of combatants in relation to intensification of negative displays of battle stress comes true for overcoming of difficulties of refurbishable period with the aim of softening of the psyche injuring experiencing and successful readaptation to peaceful life.

Approaches to psychic performance and responsibility of Reincidivist victim. Content analysis

In order to understand the psychic functioning of the recidivist victim, there had been done a content analysis focused on experiences made to whole amount of adult recidivist victims served during August and September of 2017 in the National Service of Forensic Medicine and Sciences Mérida was carried out. Recidivist victim is understood as a person who has been victims of the same crime more than once, denounced or not, by the same aggressor or another. It was found that in 66.7% of cases aggression came from a partner or ex-partner. On the other hand, 100% of the cases refer to verbal violence. When violence came from exercised by the partner or ex-partner, as well as a tendency towards physical aggression related to the aggressor mentioned above. Difficulties in the handling of attachments and limits in recidivist victims are hypothesized. Also it is recommended to make a deeper qualitative research in order to reach an explanatory understanding of the object of study.

Культурно-исторический подход Л. С. Выготского и творчество в проблеме исследования бессознательного

The article shows the results of a theoretical and experimental research on the study of psychological determinants associated with creativity in adolescence. There are certain relationships between the unconscious and creativity. The extroverted and introverted attitudes, psychical functions: thinking, feelings, sensations, intuition and other psychological personal qualities serve as independent factors. The data showing that mental functions can develop and become dominant both in extrovert and introvert attitudes are presented. According to creative indicators, where intuition dominates over sensation and feelings, in comparison with other functions, the highest indicators for non-verbal and verbal creativity are found. In adolescence, there is a tendency for largely influence of thinking on verbal creativity. According to creative indicators, the thinking type shows high verbal and non-verbal creativity under the dominance of intuition over sensation. Feelings are closely related to the verbal and non-verbal creativity of students. According to creative indicators, the extrovert sensitive type, in comparison with other types, has the highest rates of non-verbal and verbal creativity. An essential sign accompanying non-verbal creativity (both originality and uniqueness) of the rates (examined persons) is intuition. Intuition, as it turned out, is a key attribute and psychological determinant of the formation of originality and uniqueness, as well as non-verbal creativity.

Clinical Assessment of Prementalizing Modes of Psychic Functioning in Children and Their Parents in the Context of Trauma

ABSTRACTAs psychoanalytic psychotherapy for children depends on their capacity to mentalize, it is essential to integrate this dimension in their psychological assessment. Mentalization refers to the capacity to identify and comprehend the mental states (feelings, thoughts and intentions) underlying and explaining one’s own behaviors and those of others. This vital ability, which develops during the first five or six years of life in the context of a secure parent-child attachment, is often impaired in children subjected to neglect and maltreatment. Based on rigorous and systematic clinical observations made in youth protection and child psychiatry services, the authors suggest that the children in these settings, along with their parents, frequently present a prementalizing mode of psychic functioning. Further, the authors propose operationalizing the teleological, psychic equivalence, and pretend modes as they might be observed in older children and their parents. To this end, they begin by identifying behaviors, attitudes, and relational patterns potentially linked to each of these modes within a theoretical framework. Next, they describe the characteristics of these children’s narratives, play, and artistic productions. Lastly, three clinical vignettes are used to illustrate how the prementalizing modes are manifested. The results of this clinical assessment can guide the choice of techniques to be used in child psychotherapy.

The Effect of Psychotropic Drugs as a Performance Influencing Factor on Human Reliability Assessment

The increasing use/abuse of psychotropic drugs is an alarming social phenomenon with repercusions in many areas, especially in reliability engineering. The aim of this paper is to present a method developed by a multidisciplinary team composed of ergonomists, psychiatrists, information technologists, and reliability engineers to quantitatively consider the impact of psychotropic drugs on the assessment of human reliability of Operation and Maintenance (O&M) personnel of a hydroelectric plant. To achieve the proposed objective, the first step was the identification of drugs that affect the psychic-cognitive/sensory and motor functions as a side effect and the frequency (probability of occurrence) of the effect. This was done mining public and private drug databases. A qualitative (symbolic) scale later translated into numerical values was used to quantify the impact of each drug on the affected functions. At the same time, O&M tasks were broken down into observable activity sequences, recording the frequency of each activity on each task (Task Analysis). Then, the relationship between each activity and the sensory- cognitive-motor psychic functions was established, based on the knowledge and experience of the team involved. Again a qualitative (symbolic) scale was defined and later transformed into a numerical scale. As a result, the first version of a drug effect - task knowledge database (KDB) was built with the symbolic and numerical values assigned to all relationships between the different model elements. Although the KDB needs to be systematically reviewed and updated by a broader network of ergonomists and psychiatrists, it has served as proof of concept and a starting point for the development of a human risk management tool for hydroelectric power plants. The last step was to calculate a new Performance Shaping Factor (PSF) due to Psychotropic Drugs Use (PDU), for each drug in each of the O&M tasks. In a preliminary assessment of the inclusion of PDU-PSF with three common methods of Human Reliability Assessment (HRA), we found an increased risk of human failure ranging from approximately 15% to 35%, depending on the HRA method. The case study used to illustrate the method considered a routine operator inspection task using an antidepressant drug. The proposed method can be updated for new drugs and can be refined/customized for other high-risk human activities such as oil and gas and petrochemical industries, nuclear power plants, aviation, and surgery, among others.

Constitutional psychic human qualities influence on the clinical picture of reflex neurological cervical spine disorders

Objective - to study the constitutional psychic human qualities influence on the symptoms without pain in clinical picture of reflex neurological cervical spine disorders (RNCSD). Methods and subjects. 93 patients (18-44 years old) were examined by clinical-anamnestic, clinical-functional (vertebroneurological), clinical-neurological methods. A.M. Vein’s questionnaire was used and his others diagnostic approaches. Psychic functions of human constitution were studied by temperament type determining with using Eysenck’s EPQ questionnaire. All patients had RNCSD as cervicocranialgia, cervicalgia and cervicobrachialgia. Results and discussion. Muscle-tonic disturbances in the cervical spine segments were morpho-functional basis for RNCSD and clinical symptoms were formed for all sicks from this study. RNCSD characterized by symptoms without pain in clinical picture, except pain. There are pain sensitivity and tactile sensitivity disturbances in the cervical spine segments and dizziness and lack of coordination. Constitutional psychic human qualities were examined and pointed domination temperament types among ills with RNCSD. It are choleric and melancholic temperament types. Differentiation clinical pecularitіes were determined for every temperament type. Constitutional psychic human qualities influence on the forming, many symptoms, expression and hard course RNCSD. Worser being have ills with cervicalgia, cervicocranialgia, cervicobrachialgia whith melancholic and choleric temperament types. Better being and course of RNCSD have sicks with sanguine and phlegmatic temperament types. For treatment and preventions there disorders should considere temperament types. Studies about constitutional approach are relevant. Conclusions. Constitutional psychic human qualities which including in temperament influenced on the clinical picture of RNCSD. It create clinical structure and add different tints to sympthoms coloring. Constitutional psychic human quality can use as predictors of burden cource, choose criteries of treatment and prevention for patients with RNCSD.

The content of self-image in subjects with distorted personal development (based on autism spectrum disorder cases)

Background. Distorted development as a variety of psychological dysontogenesis (autism spectrum disorder, among others) can combine elements of general underdevelopment, delayed, damaged and accelerated development of single psychic functions, which brings in considerable difficulties in organizing the study of cognitive and personal features in such children and imposes a number of restrictions on the researcher. Thus the specific kind of personal sphere organization in children with the distorted type of psychological dysontogenesis with its multiple manifestations still remains a subject not yet studied in depth. Objective. Characterizing the specific features of self-image content in primary school aged children who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and preserved intelligence in comparison with their coevals who develop normally. Hypotheses put forward: 1) Self-consciousness in children with ASD who have preserved intelligence reveals specific features when confronted with the self-consciousness of their peers who develop normally; 2) Qualitative specificity of self-image content in children with ASD is influenced both by the particularity of mental structure and by whether or not the manifestations of internal representations are intact. Design. The study, which is of the comparative-descriptive nature, was focused on the state of self-image components in children with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disabilities, on the one hand, and their normally developing peers, on the other hand. The experimental group included 14 boys aged 8 to 11 who have ASD without intellectual disabilities. The control group included 14 boys aged 8 to 11. The methods applied were: conversation, observation, “Sally and Anne” false belief test (Simon Baron-Cohen, Alan M. Leslie, and Uta Frith), “Age-gender identification” method developed by N.L. Belopolskaya and modified by T.I. Kuzmina, “Drawing a human” (with subsequent interpretation according to E.V. Svistunova’s table), “Who am I?” method by Manford H. Kuhn and Thomas S. McPartland in T.V. Rumyantseva’s modified version, “Complete the sentence” method by T.I. Kuzmina (modified version of Sachs–Levi’s “Unfinished sentences” method). Results. Statistically relevant difference between the two groups, the experimental and the control one, was found in the state of the following identity components: perspective I, physical I. The relevance of the difference in the communicative I is not certain. Children with autism spectrum disorder show a variety of manifestations of distorted self-concept formation. Those children whose mental structure has not developed correctly have difficulties in the formation of the perspective I, fragmentary or absent conceptions of themselves in future; they are unable to imagine their social and age group role in the remote future, in contrast to the children with ASD who have an intact mental structure. Children with intact manifestations of internal representations show an ambivalent self-relation: their reflexive I embraces both positive and negative esteems connected to the attempts at assessing their estrangement and differences from the others, especially if their parents are reluctant to reveal their diagnosis and give the reasons for their children’s problems. Conclusions. The results obtained within the present study allow to take a broader view of autism as a distorted variant of psychological dysontogenesis. They also show the necessity of further variative studies that could assess the specific character of such children’s personality structure with respect to gender specificity, as well as the necessity to establish the basis for differentiated organization of person-oriented interaction with the children in question within psycho-correctional, pedagogical and educative contexts.

Formation of the life competence as the basis for personalized development of a primary school child

The article presents the research theoretical analysis of personality’s competence, it reveals its components and characteristics; the competence is considered from the point of view of cultural-historical theory of higher psychic functions made by L. Vyhotskyi, according to which the intellectual development of personality is implemented through acquisition by meanings of words and visual symbols, as well as it demonstrates the procedural-active approach (S. Rubinshtein, A. Brushlynskyi, L. Venher), in which the key concept is «thinking and ability», and it is determined that the essence of intellectual education should consist in formation of personality’s ability to understand and generate the new thoughts. Competence is defined by scientists as the ability to make decisions and bear responsibility for their implementation in various fields of human activity. The concept of competence implies combination of physical and intellectual qualities of a person and the properties necessary for independent and effective way out from different life situations. Competence implies the appropriate level of personal mechanisms development, such as repetition, identification, imitation, empathy, reflection, image of «I», conscience, corresponding to age opportunities and individual life stories of a child. 
 In psychological and pedagogical literature, different aspects of competence are considered: competence in communication, cognitive competence, social and psychological competence, life competence, etc. Communicative competence is considered as a system of internal resources necessary for building the effective communication in a certain range of situations during the interpersonal interaction. Cognitive competence makes it possible to determine what is true and what is false. Competence in the emotional-volitional sphere implies the preschooler’s morality formation. As the indicators of vital competence the scientists determine the activity of a child in gaming, subject-practical activities, communication and basic qualities formation in personality.

Family support upon immediate cystic fibrosis announcement

Cystic fibrosis, a rare, hereditary and chronic disease, affects the psychic functioning of children and their families. Since it is incurable, constant adjustments are essential to make sense of the inevitable evolution of the disease. The psychologists support the families and the patients so that all live as well as possible with cystic fibrosis.

METAPHYSICS OF THE SOUL: THE BODY DIVERSITY OF THE PSYCHICS

the structure of the psyche has numerous interpretations, and all because of the multidimensionality of the human soul. The article attempts to integrate different concepts of the structure of the psychical into the single model, presented in the form of a drawing. In this model, various points of view on the nature of the psyche are depicted as layers (planes) that exist not separately from each other, but supposedly spliced. In particular, the first layer – psychic functions (cognitive, emotional and volitional) – cannot function outside the plane of the conscious-unconscious, since only some psychic processes are conscious, and the vast majority are in the sphere of the unconscious. Similarly, every psychic function (from the first layer) has its own inborn source (psychophysical innate abilities) and acquired use (a formed skill that unfolds through the activity of psychophysical innate abilities). And this means that the psyche cannot be studied beyond the problem of the innate-acquired, which is the third plane of our model. Logically from this follows the fourth plane of the psyche – the psychophysiological level, which not only manifests itself through psychosomatic problems, but also generally reflects the material basis of the ideal world of the psyche. In turn, the constant fluidity of mental processes from the innate to the acquired, from the conscious to the unconscious, and vice versa gives the following plane – steady-dynamic, in the study of which the variability of all psychological phenomena is revealed. The deployment of the acquired content of the psyche occurs through the use of mechanisms of interiorization-exteriorization, which, again, is a separate layer of psychic (and – a separate direction of psychological research). The central-forming component in our model is the subjectivity of a person, which has not only been a separate subject of research in different psychological directions, but also forms a methodological basis for the formation of an authentic Ukrainian school of psychology in the future.