This stage is also known as the “Great Friend’s” one. The great friend is an idealized one, who represents the erotized man (in boy’s case) and the erotized woman (in girl’s case) they aspire to be. This stage is marked by the intensity of feelings (possession, jalousy), which are represented by “unconditional feelings”, both in love and friendships, and define what we call idealization. Friends of the same sex understand and experience, in first person, the same as them. Their secrets and the need of privacy are the necessary conditions for exploitation of eroticism not only in their bodies, but also in similar ones. This is the reason why the author of the theory calls it homossexual stage, refering to the mirroring function of friends of the same sex. I’ll call it specular stage, in order to avoid the weigh of the term homossexual as a reference to sexual orientation. The importance of this stage lies on affective intimacy between them. The “great friends” work as a model of how to feel and behave as men (in boys’case) and as women (in girls’case) in highly eroticized situations. Gradually, the introjection of great friend’s psychological traits, enables them to be eroticaly in tune with people with the same sex.
Structural Blocks
Structural blocks, at this stage, come from:
-Blocks that happened on a mild level, insufficient to block them at the previous stage (self-sexual stage)
-Inability to keep a highly eroticized situation, not for lack of desire, but for the lack of idealized masculine identity structuration, in boys’case, and for the lack of a feminine idealized identity in girls’case. It means that, depending on the level of blocks, pubers may experience situations of highly discomfort, embarassment and even, panic, when “requested” on this level of their sexual identities, i.e, in highly eroticized and desired situations. Conceptually speaking, full or partial blocks that happen at this stage, impede the necessary fusion between the feminine infantile identity that come, basically, from their mother, with their new idealized feminine references. This is the process by which they form an idealized feminine identity, in girls’ case. Boys undergo the same process, going through the fusion between masculine infantile identity, basically, coming from the father or who has had this role, and new masculine idols, forming their idealized masculine identities. Someone who is blocked at this stage[1]- second stage of puberty-, can’t keep a highly eroticized contact with someone they desire, because these partners demand their ‘eroticized atittudes’, i.e, their masculine energy, in boys’ case, and their feminine energy, in girls’ case. In cases of blocks at this stage, when people face dates/situations highly eroticized and desired, they may react with huge discomfort, embaressment or, even, panic and run away from the anxious situation. In mild blockage levels, they don’t panic or run away from physical contact, though they recede to the previous stage (self sexual stage) in which they feel comfortable and familiarized. Thus, they tend to have sex or keep tender relationships, more based on friendship with lower levels of eroticization.
To be continued in the next Post
[1] PA (Psychodramatic Analysis), the methodology being used in this study, assumes: 1) genetic predispositions or expectations regarding feminine and masculine drives development; 2) the introjection of masculine and feminine traits in a structural level in personalities and 3) learning behaviors coming from parental models (on different levels of awareness). All of these ingredients come up more clearly by the time sexual energy emerges. At this point, the theory assumes that genetic predispositions, feminine to welcome/hold (reception) and masculine to propel (combativeness) turn into behavioral performances that inevitably will be intertwined with social expectation for roles and behaviors associated with genders. It must be clear that energies/drives are not exclusive of specific sex/genders. Hence, the author’s goal, in my view, is not to give sexual orientations or gender identities a label. Concepts aim at diagnosis that help make the right (most efficient) clinical strategy to treat blocks and anguishes that impede the flow of a healthy sexual life. A more detailed essay will be developed in the sequence.
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