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Alexithymia, Disgust and the Inferiority/ Superiority Complex

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Alexithymia, Disgust and the Inferiority/ Superiority Complex ALEXITHYMIA, DISGUST AND THE INFERIORITY/ SUPERIORITY COMPLEX: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY Nikola Rokvic “Dr. Lazar Vrkatic“ Summary Faculty of Law and Business Studies, Novi Sad, Serbia Introduction. Alexithymia represents an inability of an individual to recognize their own emotions and those of others, as well as the inability to communicate UDK: 15.024.30:314.6.522 their emotional states to those surrou- doi: 10.5937/engrami2001032R nding them surroundings. Disgust as a sensation of revulsion springs up as a res- ponse to an aversive stimulus that in term manifests motivation to withdraw from that particular stimulus. Out of the fee- ling of inferiority and utter dependence on parental figures in later life, the person br. 1 can develop an all-pervasive inferiority · complex or overcompensate leading to the development of a superiority com- plex. Depending on the theoretical fra- mework adopted, all of these constructs januar-jun 2020. · can be traced to the very beginning of an individual development. vol. 42 vol. Aim. It is the aim of the study to · explore the relationship between inferi- ority/superiority complex, alexithymia Engrami and disgust. Method. The sample consisted of 475 participants, 137(28.8%) declared them- 32 selves as male, with an average age of INTRODUCTION 20.43 years (min=18; max=26; SD=1.53). The battery of tests included the COM- Alexithymia PIN, SUCOMP, TAS-20, DPSS questio- Generally speaking, alexithymia re- nnaires. presents an inability of an individual to Results. The inferiority complex recognize their own emotions and those correlates positively with difficulties in of others, as well as the inability to com- identifying feelings (r=.43) and difficul- municate their emotional states to tho- ties in describing feelings (r=.47). It also se surrounding them[1]. This deficit can correlates positively with disgust sensiti- manifest itself on a cognitive and affecti- vity (r=.25). Alexithymia explains 25.4% ve level. At the cognitive level, we see a of inferiority complex variance. Superi- diminished capability to use imaginati- ority complex does not correlate signi- on, the presence of a practical, concrete ficantly with any of the other measured type of thinking, while on an emotional constructs. level, alexithymia manifests itself with Conclusion. The results suggest the a diminished capability of consciously possibility of a developmental connecti- perceiving emotions[2]. From a psycho- on of inferiority and alexithymia, but the analytical viewpoint alexithymia can be nature of this connection is impossible to considered as a psychotic defensive stru- discern from the available results. This is cture, more radical than denial[3]. also true for disgust and inferiority but to There have been several attempts to a much lesser degree. Superiority com- classify alexithymia. Research on this plex develops, according to our results, subject resulted in a proposition that irrespectively of either the presence of alexithymia can be perceived as primary alexithymia or the level of disgust sensi- [4] br. 1 and secondary . The author describes · tivity. primary alexithymia as a result of a ne- urological disorder and secondary alexi- Key words: thymia as a defense mechanism similar inferiority, superiority, complex, to denial. This prompted further rese- januar-jun 2020. alexithymia, disgust arch that has shown that alexithymia is · more prevalent in individuals that have vol. 42 vol. [1] · suffered more than one sexual assault . There were other attempts to classify alexithymia with regards to personality Engrami profiles[5]. Type one is cold and rational individuals that prefer a quiet and iso- lated lifestyle. This type is sometimes 33 connected with schizoid personality di- from that particular stimulus[10]. It may sorder. Type two individuals, on the ot- be considered a basic emotion that po- her hand, are irritable and prefer a more ssess distinct behavioral, cognitive and active lifestyle and suffer from extreme psychological dimensions and its pur- fear of failure and a feeling of incompe- pose is to prevent disease and contami- tence. nation[11]. The proposed primary functi- The etiology of alexithymia has been on of disgust is to defend an individual a subject of much debate. There are from physical and psychological harm theorists that will maintain that alexit- caused by contamination. It is also des- hymia is genetic in origin and therefo- cribed as an emotional state that in its re should be considered a personality infancy operates as a safety net for oral trait[6]. This twin study has determined defense mechanisms that later evolves that 30 to 33 percent of the variance in and extends into an overarching trait alexithymia testing results are explai- that guides interpersonal relationships, ned by genetic factors. Given that it has influences the person’s moral sense and been postulated that specific environ- the social order itself[12]. mental factors regulate gene expression We must differentiate disgust sensi- it has been postulated that the most li- tivity as measured by elicitor-based in- kely etiology of alexithymia is based on struments and that measured as a trait. gene-environment interactions[7]. It is Devoid of elicitors, disgust sensitivity speculated that contributing factors to (DS) and disgust propensity (DP) have the development of alexithymia are in- been differentiated as separate constru- secure patterns of attachment, slecificaly cts with dissimilar associations with dismissive and deactivating attachment. related constructs[13]. In this manner br. 1 The difficultie-identifying-feelings facet disgust sensitivity can be interpreted as · of alexithymia has been associated with a measure of how inconvenienced a per- expiriences of physical and/or emotio- son is by experiencing disgust and dis- nal negdlect in childhood[8]. Dissatisfa- gust propensity can be seen as readiness ction with parental youch in adulthud or the ease with which a person reacts januar-jun 2020. · has been to an extent linked with alexi- with disgust. The Disgust Propensity thymia[9]. and Sensitivity Scale (DPSS) has been vol. 42 vol. · developed to measure disgust in such Disgust a manner[13]. Out of its many measured We could define disgust as a sensa- relationship at this point we would like Engrami tion of revulsion springing up as a res- to choose and highlight the relationship ponse to an aversive stimulus that in between disgust sensitivity, albeit mea- term manifests motivation to withdraw sured by a different scale than the DPSS 34 that we used in our study, and trait Ne- dence we experience as infants and as uroticism, and that they stand in weak children. This perception and the resul- positive correlation[14], there is also a ting feelings stem from the insight that weak positive correlation between alexi- others in the child’s life possess al the thymia and disgust sensitivity and pro- power and that struggling against them pensity[9]. is ultimately futile. Depending on life From a psychoanalytic point of view circumstances of the child, these expe- disgust is strongly connected with rea- riences can trigger compensational and ction-formation[15]. This however is not over-compensational activities. These the only interpretation of the emotion. two complexes, inferiority and superi- From the stand point of developmental ority can exist in a person at the same psychoanalysts leave aside the reaction time but have different levels of expre- formation paradigm and examine the ssion. Ultimately the purpose of both interpersonal component as a rejection types of behavior is to protect the self to devaluation and rejection[16]. It is the- from the feeling of inferiority and ina- orized that disgust is recognized in the dequacy. This feeling of inferiority is in faces of parents and other significant constant flux and expresses itself as an figures in early development, since they evaluation of oneself. As a result of this use it more often than they presume in estimation of oneself the child envisions response to certain behaviors and bodily the compensation owed by life for its functions of the child[15]. Also it is po- feeling of inferiority and in accordance stulated that there is another root to dis- to this it sets its life goals[18]. Anything in gust, a social one where facial recogniti- an individual that is considered by the- on of disgust in certain social situations ir enviroments as below provoking un- later prompts a conditioned response to favorable comments results in a feeling br. 1 · the same situation. The precise relati- of impotence that leads to the possible onship, if any, between development of pofmration of an inferiority complex[19]. disgust as proposed by psychoanalysis The basic sense of inferiority developed and the possible parallel formation of an in early childhood is for Adler the ba- januar-jun 2020. inferiority complex is at present unclear. sis for a later neurotic disposition of an · individual[20]. These neurotic tendencies vol. 42 vol. · Inferiority and superiority flair up in adolescence and teenage ye- complexes ars presenting itself as a psychological The central most concept of Adle- obstacle in development resulting in Engrami rian individual theory of personality is possible acts of agression and frustrati- the feeling of inferiority[17]. It originates on[19]. from the very real feeling of total depen- When reviewing the possible etiolo- 35 gies of both alexithymia and disgust we sion of the original questionnaire me- are enevitably drawn to expiriences
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