Disaffectation
Encyclopedia
The term disaffectation was coined by noted French psychoanalyst Joyce McDougall as a strictly psychoanalytic term for alexithymia
, a neurological condition characterized by severe lack of emotional awareness. McDougall felt that alexithymia had become too strongly classified as a neuroanatomical defect and concretized as an intractable illness leaving little room for a purely psychoanalytic explanation for this phenomenon. In coining the term McDougall hoped to indicate the behavior of people who had experienced overwhelming emotion
that threatened to attack their sense of integrity and identity. Such individuals, unable to repress
the ideas linked to emotional pain and equally unable to project these feelings delusively onto representations of other people, simply ejected them from consciousness by "pulverizing all trace of feeling, so that an experience which has caused emotional flooding is not recognized as such and therefore cannot be contemplated". They were not suffering from an inability to experience or express emotion, but from "an inability to contain and reflect over an excess of affective experience."
'Disaffectation' conveys a deliberate double meaning. The Latin prefix dis-, indicates separation or loss and suggests, metaphorically, that certain people are psychologically separated from their emotions and may have "lost" the capacity to be in touch with interior psychic reality. Also included in this prefix is the secondary meaning from the Greek dys- with its implication of illness.
According to Professor of Psychiatry of the University of Toronto
Graeme Taylor this psychoanalytic conceptualization departs from older, less applicable theories which emphasized the role of unconscious neurotic conflicts, and instead facilitates a psychoanalytic model of physical illness and disease based on the operation of primitive pre-neurotic pathology that has failed to achieve psychic representation. Henry Krystal Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University
agreed, adding that it is useful to separate the consideration of psychotherapy for the "disaffected" individual from that of the classical psychosomatic neuroses. To Krystal this consideration is important because "since these patients may develop serious, even occasionally fatal exacerbations of illness during psychotherapy, treating them with psychotherapy for psychosomatic illness is not indicated". This distinction has allowed the field of psychoanalysis to contribute constructively to the field of psychosomatic medicine.
Alexithymia
Alexithymia from the Ancient Greek words λέξις and θυμός modified by an alpha-privative—literally "without words for emotions"—is a term coined by psychotherapist Peter Sifneos in 1973 to describe a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing...
, a neurological condition characterized by severe lack of emotional awareness. McDougall felt that alexithymia had become too strongly classified as a neuroanatomical defect and concretized as an intractable illness leaving little room for a purely psychoanalytic explanation for this phenomenon. In coining the term McDougall hoped to indicate the behavior of people who had experienced overwhelming emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
that threatened to attack their sense of integrity and identity. Such individuals, unable to repress
Psychological repression
Psychological repression, also psychic repression or simply repression, is the psychological attempt by an individual to repel one's own desires and impulses towards pleasurable instincts by excluding the desire from one's consciousness and holding or subduing it in the unconscious...
the ideas linked to emotional pain and equally unable to project these feelings delusively onto representations of other people, simply ejected them from consciousness by "pulverizing all trace of feeling, so that an experience which has caused emotional flooding is not recognized as such and therefore cannot be contemplated". They were not suffering from an inability to experience or express emotion, but from "an inability to contain and reflect over an excess of affective experience."
'Disaffectation' conveys a deliberate double meaning. The Latin prefix dis-, indicates separation or loss and suggests, metaphorically, that certain people are psychologically separated from their emotions and may have "lost" the capacity to be in touch with interior psychic reality. Also included in this prefix is the secondary meaning from the Greek dys- with its implication of illness.
According to Professor of Psychiatry of the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
Graeme Taylor this psychoanalytic conceptualization departs from older, less applicable theories which emphasized the role of unconscious neurotic conflicts, and instead facilitates a psychoanalytic model of physical illness and disease based on the operation of primitive pre-neurotic pathology that has failed to achieve psychic representation. Henry Krystal Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
agreed, adding that it is useful to separate the consideration of psychotherapy for the "disaffected" individual from that of the classical psychosomatic neuroses. To Krystal this consideration is important because "since these patients may develop serious, even occasionally fatal exacerbations of illness during psychotherapy, treating them with psychotherapy for psychosomatic illness is not indicated". This distinction has allowed the field of psychoanalysis to contribute constructively to the field of psychosomatic medicine.
See also
- Amplification (psychology)Amplification (psychology)Amplification is to amplify physical symptoms based on psychological factors such as anxiety or depression: "somatosensory amplification refers to the tendency to experience somatic sensation as intense, noxious, and disturbing...
- Psychological mindednessPsychological mindednessPsychological mindedness is a concept which refers to an individual's capacity for self-examination, self-observation, introspection and personal insight. It also includes an ability to recognize and see the links between current problems within self and with others, and the ability to insight...
- Emotional IntelligenceEmotional intelligenceEmotional intelligence is a skill or ability in the case of the trait EI model, a self-perceived ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Various models and definitions have been proposed of which the ability and trait EI models are the most...
- AlexithymiaAlexithymiaAlexithymia from the Ancient Greek words λέξις and θυμός modified by an alpha-privative—literally "without words for emotions"—is a term coined by psychotherapist Peter Sifneos in 1973 to describe a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing...
- EmpathyEmpathyEmpathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...