Identity crisis and the structure of psychotherapeutic intervention Tretyak L.L.NOU DPO Eastern European Gestalt Institute A wave of high-profile serial teenage suicides, widely publicized by the media, in the winter of 2012 caused a wide public discussion about prevention measures suicidal behavior and the development of crisis assistance. Obviously, in this case, the “Werther effect”, described by a group of Californian sociologists led by David Phillips in 1975, fully manifested itself. The series of suicides was largely provoked by the detailed “savoring” of the details of the teenage suicides that occurred on most domestic television channels and in the press. The public reaction was no less surprising: commentators on the stories pointed out the need to limit access to information and the harmful influence of the Internet and social networks. The view of teenage suicide as an unsuccessful way of dealing with a personal crisis was clearly on the periphery of public consciousness. Problems of identity and modern cultural backgroundThe stages of development of the human soul have been given attention in various cultural, philosophical and religious traditions. In traditional societies, the end of the latent period of development with its asexual morality and prohibitions imposed by rules and the transition to the age of sexual maturity was marked by initiation rituals. Possessing a complex structure, the initiation ritual contributed to the transformation of a boy into a man (hunter, warrior), and a girl into a woman. Gender and social roles in traditional societies were rigidly fixed and rarely subject to revision. A rigid hierarchy and fixed professional and social roles were achieved through caste or guild affiliation, and at a later time, through class. Traditional morality was based on sociocultural introjects that were not subject to revision and revision; the preservation of its principles was controlled by institutions of social coercion in the form of the church and state. Rapid industrialization, which led to the development of industrial megacities, from the end of the eighteenth century gradually destroyed the foundations of traditional morality and inherent cultural and historical traditions initiation rituals. Their framework became less rigid, the ritual load became conditional. The development of multiculturalism, globalization processes and the exponentially increased speed of electronic communications have further contributed to the blurring of the boundaries of identity (national, social, gender). Standardization of public institutions, universalization of professional and social roles while blurring national identities has become a common phenomenon. In European countries, the boundaries of national identity have become most blurred, and when asked to imagine a player on the French football team, we are more likely to remember a black athlete, and a modern German burgher is likely to turn out to be a bearer of the traditions of Sufi Islam. In the domestic tradition, the response to the emerging processes of globalization was an attempt to develop on the ruins of the Russian Empire a new historical community, the “united Soviet people.” Under the influence of accelerated communication, traditional professions also changed, new ones appeared, for which they did not have time to find adequate analogues in national languages ​​(designer, marketer, merchandiser , web analyst, promoter). Often work can be carried out via “remote access”, eliminating the need for production workshops and office space. Technology is proving its advantage everywhere, even in agriculture and livestock, displacing traditional ideas about professional roles. Traditional gender roles are under great strain. The appearance of men and women, the range of traditionally male and female professions are changing, there is a crisis in the traditional family (free choice of partner, reliefdivorce procedures, civil marriage, “guest marriage”). Attitudes towards various sexual deviations are becoming more and more tolerant. Forms of perverse, pre-oedipal sexuality (swing clubs, prostitution, one-time acquaintances) are becoming widespread. The culture of sexual gratification at any cost often outstrips the culture of mature love and romantic idealization. An impersonal, material approach to the world is actively promoted. In such a culture, each object can be replaced and reproduced anew, the attitude towards objects is transmitted to the subject. You can freely, without any special consequences, change your nationality, place of residence, profession, family, gender (if desired). The combination of tolerance for differences and the ease of replacing objects of attachment gives rise to an explosive mixture that can be used both for public good (in the form of freedom of choice) and for harm (in the form of blurring the boundaries of social norm and pathology). The ease of replacing an object, reaching its greatest expression in virtual trading and online computer games, causes an increase in narcissistic load associated with achieving high social status. A paradoxical situation is created: the growth of social well-being, the development of increasingly comfortable living conditions, is accompanied by an increase in depressive disorders and general dissatisfaction with life. An additional factor is social stratification, most obvious in countries with developing market economies (Russia, India, China). Psychoactive substances (alcohol, cannabis, opiates) used in traditional cultures as components of initiation rituals and death-rebirth rituals began to be widely used for non-ritual purposes, acting as a “chemical prosthesis” that facilitates the experience of the discrepancy between the real image of oneself and the ideal self imposed by the culture of the social success and achievement. The culture of social achievements that become virtual, however, is based on a powerful foundation of the biological foundations of the social hierarchy, described in detail in works on human ethology (V.P. Samokhvalov, 1994). Thus, the social transition associated with the development of globalization and informatization processes creates an additional aggressive background that complicates the passage of identity crises. Identity diffusion and teenage crisis The concept of identity crisis received maximum development in the works of E.H. Erikson. Combining Freud's theory of psychosexual development and the observations of contemporary anthropologists, he correlated the main stages of identity development with certain age periods. The teenage crisis, or the stage of adolescence according to Erikson (the period from 11 to 20 years), is characterized by the phenomena of identity diffusion - an unclear, unclear idea of ​​\u200b\u200boneself. Changing hormonal status, a sharp awakening of sexuality, vagueness and uncertainty of life prospects in adulthood are combined with heightened sensitivity to external control and infringement of autonomy. Reactions of opposition and imitation act as ways to gain an idea of ​​oneself in the world, to find the optimal social image that best matches a person’s natural inclinations. The need to find an optimal image leads to the construction of an ideal self, through the identification and contrast of one’s own, not yet sufficient life experience and external patterns of behavior and expression. The objects of teenage idealization are idols who in one way or another embody the ideas of denial of dogma, protest and opposition. By reflecting on them, teenagers acquire their own judgments. However, a relatively painless separation is possible if the foundations of institutionalization are in place. It is much more difficult to consider the reflection in the cloudy mirror of modern social processes, oversaturated with accessible and internally contradictory information. In an era of social transition and blurred institutional guidelines, this further exacerbates contradictions and conflict. Why take so long to learn anything?What if you still earn money from something else? Why care about the public good if society ignores personal difficulties? Why listen to teachers who are deeply unhappy themselves? Why try to achieve something when you can become a participant in Dom-2 and win a million in cash. Taking into account the crisis of traditional social institutions and value guidelines in the era of globalization, we can talk about the phenomena of psychological resonance of a personal and social crisis in the minds of adolescents. The compensatory desire for over-identification makes it possible to level out contradictions; through reactions of grouping and idealization of certain value systems, a fragile balance is achieved in the adolescent’s value-semantic sphere. Accordingly, the collapse or inflation of the values ​​of the idealized group, or the remnants of the morality of the latent period makes the teenager extremely vulnerable. The incompleteness of the teenage crisis can preserve for a long time the phenomena of identity diffusion, false self-determination, when the true personality is replaced by a system of overidentification and narcissistic compensation. It is the collapse of this system that subjectively provokes states of hopelessness and hopelessness. The inability to move through the emptiness and unclear knowledge of oneself and the maintenance of self-esteem through false self-determination lays the risk of a narcissistic crisis, sometimes misinterpreted in terms of depressive dynamics. But if the depressive dynamics are supported by a blockade of constructive aggression and the fear of losing another, then the narcissistic crisis is accompanied by an acute sense of shame and defensive maneuvers aimed at avoiding it. According to the ideas of the classics of the Gestalt approach, passing the layer of “dead end” and “death” will mark the birth of a new identity, and any personal crisis is accompanied by a similar cycle of “death-rebirth”. In a crisis of social institutions, psychologists and psychotherapists can take on the role of guides in an identity crisis. Social suicide as an alternative to biological Suicidal intentions and fantasies are the key to the symbolism of experiencing a crisis. The most common motive is to avoid subjectively intolerable mental pain (Mokhovikov A.N., 2001). The birth of a new thing is often accompanied by the need for painful separation, when it is necessary to part with part of the experience with which a person was identified, about which he could say “this is I,” “this is mine.” The period of early adolescence is full of such separations, provoking the emergence of mental pain and identity crises. In search of reflection, adolescents try to replace a vague self-image with overidentification with significant people (idols). Merger (confluence) with a social group or an idealized leader allows one to survive the pain and despair of separation. Identity crises caused by separation are not always accompanied by clinical manifestations of mood disorders. But quite often they contain the experience of separation guilt (“I’m bad because I’m not with them”). The reaction of grouping and overidentification helps to reduce the severity of this experience. Teenagers often imitate the behavior of an idol, whose behavior embodies vivid manifestations of painful separation (protest, opposition, nonconformism). The image of a protest hero-rebel allows one to support a teenage challenge to the foundations of the Pharisaic morality of the latent period. Suicide or the tragic death of an idol (the consequences of the suicide of Nirvana group leader Kurt Cobain are enough) can provoke a wave of confluent suicides caused by over-identification with him. It is confluent suicides that are characterized by contagion and seriality. In conditions of blurred guidelines, anomic suicides, caused by a feeling of confusion and uncertainty, resonating with a crisis of values ​​and public morality, become a destructive way to resolve the crisis. Complex, insufficiently differentiated emotional states accompanying a crisisidentities, give rise to acute mental pain, the method of avoiding which for some time, thanks to the media and communication, becomes popular and glorified. The public reaction to such waves is characterized by increased repressive measures against sources of information, which rather drives the problem deeper than contributes to its resolution. The virtualization of death, which is formed in adolescents under the influence of computer games and television, and the lack of real experience of serious physical suffering only facilitates the implementation of suicide. At the same time, the fashion for extreme ways of reacting (“suicidal fashion”) was overcome quite well in the Middle Ages, when suicide was taboo, considered one of the worst sins, and the body of the suicider after death was subjected to humiliating procedures. But an exclusively repressive attitude towards suicidal ideas does not contain an element of their solution. Psychiatrists can be considered hostages of the repressive approach, who in a situation of a patient’s suicide risk being blamed not only by his immediate relatives, but also by some colleagues who are confident in the ability of the specialist to omnipotently control the patient’s behavior. Suicidal fantasy contains a component of getting rid of mental pain and access to the plane of that mental reality that does not contain suffering or limitation. The therapist’s strategy for working with the suicidal continuum does not differ significantly in different approaches and contains three necessary elements: identification of fantasy, disclosure of the procedural meaning of fantasy, diversification of the solution method. In order to identify fantasy, it is important for the therapist to refrain from making judgments regarding life extension, since suicidal fantasy often acts as the last support for the patient’s self-esteem. Much more valuable is the active identification, acceptance and serious discussion of suicidal intent as a possible way to resolve problems. It is important to understand what needs are realized during the process of fantasy, how the client’s internal reality changes when the intended action is completed. Fantasy rehearsal allows you to reduce the tension of suppressed emotions, express and analyze some of the accumulated narcissistic resentment, and determine the targets towards which the fantasy is aimed. In a dysfunctional family, the child’s needs are either replaced by the needs of the group (confluence) or are subject to strict restrictive prohibitions and restrictions on initiative (introjection). In introjective families, upbringing is often implemented according to the type of narcissistic expansion, when certain expectations are imposed on the child that do not correspond to the structure of his own needs. Early, uncritical introjection of imposed social roles and grandiose expectations of one’s own effectiveness contributes to the development of personality-oriented perfectionism, accompanied by intolerance to inevitable failures in the field of social achievements. If a child does not realize the imposed ideal of himself, he acutely feels toxic shame and loss of meaning. Equally, and sometimes even more destructive, consequences are caused by indulging overprotection, which prevents the development of control over self-destructive and aggressive forms of behavior and becomes a way of encouraging brutal forms of emotional response. The choice of method of self-destruction is also important. Thus, a protest against external restrictions can be realized through the choice of brutal, bloody methods (a shot, a jump out of a window) (G.A. Pilyagina, 1998). The choice of poisoning as a method of suicide may contain fantasies of reassurance, unconditional acceptance on the part of the Other, indicating to a lack of acceptance from significant others. When the targets of suicidal fantasy are identified, it is important to make a shuttle movement to actual conflicts, outlining the areas in which these needs (in the examples given, the needs of autonomy and acceptance and affiliation) are most frustrated. False,.