Auto-aggression is behavior against oneself
Auto-aggression is self-destruction. Despite the fact that a person is inclined to worry about his own safety and protect himself from negativity, he often turns negative emotions inward that have not been released outward.
The manifestation of auto-aggression has an extremely negative effect on the body, causing psychosomatic diseases, nervous breakdowns, apathy, and depression.
A person does not accept himself, his body, his activities, inadequately assesses his own capabilities, and denies desires. The manifestation of auto-aggression is individual for each person: some consciously engage in self-flagellation, while others make themselves feel bad on an unconscious level.
In the first case, a person can deliberately cause himself mental and even physical pain. In the second, injury occurs by itself. For example, a person loses vigilance while driving and gets into an accident, resulting in pain. Or, believing that he is not working hard enough, he forces himself to work with all his might, after which the body fails and an exacerbation of a chronic disease occurs, which itself puts the person in a hospital bed.
Literature
- McWilliams, Nancy.
Defense mechanisms // Psychoanalytic diagnosis: Understanding personality structure in the clinical process = Psychoanalytic diagnosis: Understanding personality structure in the clinical process. - Moscow: Class, 1998. - 480 p. — ISBN 5-86375-098-7. - Zmanovskaya, Elena Valerievna.
Deviantology. - M.: Publishing House, 2003. - 288 p. - Ipatov, Andrey Vladimirovich.
Teenager. From self-destruction to self-development. - St. Petersburg: Publishing house "Rech", 2011 - 111 p.
Auto-aggressive behavior - is it natural?
Auto-aggressive behavior is considered unnatural for a person; it has a destructive basis.
Despite the fact that the manifestations of auto-aggression are individual, psychologists have been able to create a universal classification of behavior in which auto-aggression occurs.
Manifestations of auto-aggression are divided according to the following characteristics:
- Sphere of influence: social, psychological, spiritual, physical.
- Level of voluntariness: unconscious or conscious.
- Method of implementation: direct, indirect, extended, trans-aggressive.
- Manifestation method: autism, eating disorder, suicidal tendencies, passion for sects, cults, extreme sports, victimization, alcohol and drug addiction, mutilation and self-inflicted pain.
Why does auto-aggression appear and why does it affect people of different ages and situations? According to psychoanalysts, auto-aggression is a protective mental mechanism. In this manifestation, aggression directed at a specific person or situation does not reach the goal and rushes inward.
For example, excessive timidity and delicacy do not allow a person to respond to rudeness with rudeness or refuse something. A person agrees or tolerates rudeness, while simultaneously cultivating rejection of the situation. Unspokenness transforms rejection into anger, directs it towards oneself, and the process of self-flagellation, that is, auto-aggression, is launched.
According to the theory developed by psychologist G. Pilyagina, the development of auto-aggression is facilitated by certain forms:
- a person with developing frustration, internal conflict and denial of aggression in parallel with the denial of the opinions of other people, perceived as their own;
- the emergence of a situation with mental trauma and activation of behavioral defense mechanisms;
- feedback with a negative connotation (expectations regarding something or someone have not been fulfilled, there is a need to resolve an internal conflict, manifestation of aggression from the outside).
Kinds
There are several classifications of auto-aggression. The doctor is primarily interested in the main component – the cause of the disease.
In accordance with etiological factors, the following forms of self-destruction are distinguished:
- Mental. It includes personality traits that, under the influence of internal and/or external stimuli, are reduced into self-destructive actions. The main manifestations are self-blame and self-abasement.
- Physical. The symptoms of this type of disorder are dominated by actions accompanied by violence against one’s body. The patient is capable of hitting himself, making punctures and cuts.
- Social. The patient isolates himself from communication and strives to become an outcast from society. At the same time, he has a paradoxical joyful reaction from the fact that people begin to react negatively to the sick person.
- Moral. Characterized by dependencies. Suffering from alcoholism or drug addiction, a person deliberately isolates himself from other people, undergoes self-exhaustion, and emotional devastation.
Establishing the characteristics of this nature allows the psychiatrist to take a more selective approach to the treatment of deviation.
Auto-aggression in children / child: causes and symptoms
Auto-aggression in children/children has its own characteristics and symptoms. Children cause pain to themselves by hitting, scratching their skin, pinching, tearing their hair, and biting their limbs. The occurrence of such behavior is usually observed after the child is punished, scolded or prohibited from doing something.
If a child does not know how to shift attention from a negative situation, the child’s aggressive actions occur involuntarily and almost immediately after the incident. An older child already begins to hide traces of physical self-flagellation from others, and mental abuse and self-blame occurs alone.
Some children use self-aggression methods to attract attention from parents and friends. If small children are able to hit themselves, scratch themselves and show the wound to their mother so that she will regret it, then teenagers are already acting in other ways to gain respect and attention. Boys smoke and drink alcohol to appear independent and self-sufficient, girls exhaust their bodies with diets and sports in order to be attractive.
Attempts to commit suicide have the goal of simultaneously self-punishment, avoiding difficulties and drawing attention to one’s personality.
Children's auto-aggression occurs in complex social and family relationships. The reasons for the development of such behavior are as follows:
- A psychological type of child in which there is low self-esteem, frequent bad mood, apathy, and isolation from society. Such children often subtly sense the emotional state of other people and are ready to help them to the detriment of themselves.
- Reaction to punishment. The child cannot respond to the negativity coming from adults, so he pours out his resentment inside his own body.
- Parental quarrels that cause fear, helplessness, and self-blame in the child. The child does not say a word in defense of either parent, and is engaged in deliberately hurting himself.
- Lack of attention on the part of the father and mother. The child inflicts injuries on himself, to which the parents react and spend more time with him, feeling sorry for him.
- Excessive demands placed on the child. Studying - only excellent, sports achievements - only a gold medal, Olympiads and competitions - only with prizes. The kid tries to please and complete the tasks facing him. But if it doesn’t work out, and he is scolded, auto-aggression is added to the depression. By inflicting physical pain on himself, the child punishes himself for failing to meet the expectations of adults.
- A parental example of self-aggression that children adopt. The upset mother closes herself in the room and lies there, refusing food and communication. The upset dad calls himself a worthless and useless person and goes on a drinking binge. A child, looking at such behavior, involuntarily tries it on himself and acts in the same way.
Auto-aggression in children is divided into:
- verbal, when self-flagellation is psychological in nature;
- physical, when harm is done to the body.
Diagnostics
When making a diagnosis, great importance is attached to interviewing the patient and/or his relatives and answering questions. The conclusions obtained during the conversation are supported by inspection data. The psychiatrist tries to identify the root cause of existing disorders.
Psychodiagnostics is important. For these purposes the following are used:
- Questionnaires.
- Test methods.
- Questioning.
- Conversation with a psychologist.
- Treatment of auto-aggression
Some patients or their loved ones try to get rid of the existing problem on their own and spend a long time searching in different sources for the answer to the question: what to do. You should not waste time on self-diagnosis and self-medication - they often lead to loss of time and the appearance of serious (sometimes irreversible) complications.
At the first symptoms of auto-aggression, be sure to contact a psychiatrist. We try to find an individual approach to each patient. A treatment plan is drawn up after diagnosis. In this case, many factors are taken into account: the cause of the disease, its form, the severity of symptoms, weight, mental characteristics of the patient, etc. The treatment regimen for autoaggression includes only those techniques that provide the most effective results and the fewest side effects.
We use:
- Drug therapy.
- Psychotherapy.
- Medical and psychological rehabilitation.
Pharmacotherapy includes the following:
- Neuroleptics. Given in the presence of agitation, aggression, hysterical behavior, dangerous antisocial behavior.
- Sedatives. They are necessary to suppress phobias, mental attacks accompanying the disease and other manifestations accompanied by fears.
- Antidepressants. These drugs are required to eliminate clinical forms of depression. Selecting the most suitable one may take a long time. You will have to take it after discharge from the hospital.
- Symptomatic medications.
Psychotherapy methods:
- Individual conversations with a psychiatrist/psychologist.
- Sessions of persuasion and suggestion in reality.
- Hypnotherapy.
- Group and family psychocorrection.
- Art therapy.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy.
During the training, dominant mental ideas and reflexes are gradually eliminated.
Auto-aggression in adults
Auto-aggression in adults is most often observed with the development of neuroses and depression; the symptoms do not immediately appear and become obvious. The first “bells” of such a deviation are a passion for dangerous sports, alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual promiscuity, and an eating disorder.
Adults, consciously or unconsciously, commit certain actions that destroy their health and body. When angry or upset about something, a person can drink a lot, smoke, use drugs, throw himself under a car or from a height, get into a car, or attempt suicide. In adults, there are some types of auto-aggression:
- Victim . People, feeling offended, deliberately provoke dangerous situations - they go to the roof, to the bridge, to a busy roadway.
- Fanatical . When someone consciously sacrifices himself to sectarians, becomes a fan, joins a fan club of a movie or pop star and acts to his detriment, but in the name of his idol.
- Nutritional : in the form of anorexia or bulimia, eating disorders.
- Suicidal . An attempt to commit suicide can be demonstrative (solely in order to manipulate loved ones and attract attention to oneself) and real (an attempt to physically destroy oneself or cause injury). The so-called “extended” suicide is diagnosed, which happens when a person drives drunk for a long time, participates in dangerous races, jumps from roofs, walks on ropes at height, and puts life in danger.
In any case, experts say that attacks of auto-aggression in adults have roots in childhood, when they were offended, humiliated, and worried about parental quarrels.
Auto-aggression: a test for the tendency to self-flagellation
To understand how prone you are to self-destruction, take the Auto-Agression test. Answer “yes” or “no” to all questions, award 5 points for a positive answer, and 0 points for a negative answer.
- Are you easily angered?
- Do you agree that strength is the best proof?
- If your opinion does not coincide with someone else's, will you enter into an argument?
- Can you do something to spite someone?
- Do people envy you?
- Are you capable of being rude to others?
- Is there a person you truly hate?
- Do you have a positive attitude towards making fun of people?
- Can you punish a child by using force?
- Do you feel like your presence annoys others?
- Do you like horror films, action films?
- Can you break something when you get angry?
- Are you in favor of the death penalty?
Count your points and check the information.
0-25 points: you experience slight self-doubt, but you are sociable and have a kind character. You like people, you communicate easily and make acquaintances. You are easily influenced by others, but be careful. Aggressive people may well target you.
26-40 more points: you sometimes lose control of yourself, cannot restrain hurtful words towards others. You enjoy watching people feel awkward and insecure, and you can tease them and make them laugh. But when such behavior is turned in your direction, you feel angry and dissatisfied.
More than 40 points: you have a high level of aggression and self-aggression, you cannot restrain negative emotions, it is difficult for you to control yourself. You can show aggression towards a person who is weaker than you. If you are offended by someone whom you cannot fight back, turn on the auto-aggression mechanism.
Notes
- Shustov, Dmitry Ivanovich.
Auto-aggressiveness and the illusion of immortality // Journal of practical psychology and psychoanalysis. No. 1 March. — 2005. - ↑ 123
Nancy McWilliams, “Psychoanalytic Diagnostics: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process,” chapter “Turning Against the Self,” ed. "Class", 1998. - Ruzhenkov V. A., Lobov G. A., Boeva A. V.
On the issue of clarifying the content of the concept of “auto-aggressive behavior”. // Department of Psychiatry, Narcology and Clinical Psychology. Belgorod State University - ↑ 1 2 Ipatov, Andrey Vladimirovich.
Personality of a self-destructive teenager. Research and Correction. Monograph. - St. Petersburg: Publishing house "Aura Info", 2012 - 248 p. - Pilyagina, Galina Yakovlevna. 2000
- Rean, Arthur Alexandrovich. 1997
- Rean, Arthur Alexandrovich.
Personality psychology in the works of foreign psychologists. Reader. — 1st edition. - St. Petersburg, 2001. - 320 p. - (Reader). — ISBN 5-272-00143-5. - Agazade N. V. 1989
- Zhmurov Dmitry Vitalievich. 2001
What to do to overcome auto-aggression?
- Increase your self-esteem, find your strengths, work on yourself. Accept the shortcomings and develop a plan to change behavior and eliminate them. Take your time and don't expect quick results, just go towards your goal.
- Don’t accumulate negativity, respond to offenders, don’t keep anger inside. Negative emotions that do not find a way out into the outside world will remain inside and will harm your health.
- Learn to say no and value your time and experience.
- Don't place high demands on yourself. Be realistic about your capabilities, but don't belittle them. Learn to accept your mistakes and look at them objectively.
- Don't blame or scold yourself, try to treat yourself with respect and love. Only those who love themselves can be loved by other people.
- Don't try to be perfect for everyone - this will only harm you. Be yourself.
