8. Organizing Principles, Templates and Defiance in an Adolescent Ballerina and her Therapist
Presenter: |
Bruce D. Herzog, MD, FRCP(C) |
Chair: |
Helen Ziskind, MSW, BCD |
Self Psychology Page | 21th Conference
Program
Brief Summary
The development of a compliant personality has been thought to have resulted from a lack of ability in early caregivers to acknowledge and enjoy autonomous thinking and behaviour in their child. This paper discusses the development of a defiant personality configuration resulting from a similar upbringing. The tendency to either comply or defy are very different behavioural habits, but they may develop out of the same early developmental experience, one that requires that the child put aside his needs in order to receive the love of the parent. Through compliance to other's needs the child can sacrifice the integrity of the autonomous self in order to receive a loving connection, whereas defiance helps to maintain the integrity of the self at the cost of decreasing access to the love of others.
This suggests that a single unconscious principle of organization can lead to a variety of different fixed behavioral habits or "templates". With "defiant" or "compliant" personalities the principle asserts that the needs of the self are destined to be secondary to the needs of others. From that premise, one can tend to either comply to preserve the love of the other, or defy to protect the autonomous self.
The clinical example of a rebellious adolescent student of ballet being treated by myself in my earlier years of training, focuses on the intersubjective aspects of a treatment where both patient and therapist share a similar invariant organizing principle which led to interferences for both of them in accessing what they needed from others.