Continuing the previous Post, from 2 years old on, bio psychic apparatus is ready to invest energy outside, in the environment, starting, hence, socialization. Development, from now on, will happen in three dimensions: learning (behavior imitation), introjection of psychological traits and children’s own experiences. Relying on these abilities, individuals develop “socially” sharing their lives in communities. It means following certain “tacit rules of behavior” (common sense), on the one hand, and corresponding to social performance expectations, and pursuing their own needs and interests, on the other. They start to build, from this time on, their Ego or Consciousness[1]. Consciousness, in this sense, is the psyche’s side that is responsible for emotional balance. Its role is to defend psyche against situations that are felt as threatening. Sensorial memories (conflicting situations in early years), which resulted in blocked area(s) are “erased” or “forgotten”. They manifest themselves through dysfunctional behaviors that confirm patterns of emotional avoidance. Freud called this way of functioning psychodynamics. Moreover, facilitating or inhibitory atmospheres during childhood are introjected in children’s identity, becoming part of their personalities. Memories linked to the conflicts on the source of symptoms are, also, erased. This way, Ego is in charge of keeping under control everything that may be felt as threatening to emotional balance. It offers, then, the adequate conditions for individuals to invest energy outside and explore the environment. “Structural anguish”, in turn, is neutralized. It will appear, later, in neurosis and is called, by Dias[2], pathological anguish. It is the beginning of a phase of psychological acommodation.
Puberty brings back the instability of the early years (cenesthetical phase). New information coming from the hardware triggers sexual hormones production, establishing emotional conditions to the arousal of sexual energy. This process comes together with many physical and emotional changes because it brings up eroticism and the need for sexual energy discharge. At this time, the available discharging channel is masturbation, once pubers do not know other forms of sexuality discharge so far.
To be continued on the next Post
[1] I will be using them as synonyms [2] Dias, S.V is the creator of Psychodramatic Analysis, our main methodological reference.
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