Abstract
Over the past three years we have encountered social processes that have shattered our steady way of living: the COVID pandemic, social unrests and splits after presidential elections, the war in Ukraine. Adults with a post-totalitarian personality have experienced a re-activation of their inner totalitarian objects, but “Gen Z” adolescents without the personal experience of living in a totalitarian system react differently to current realities. Practitioners are witnessing a dramatic increase in social anxieties and anorexia nervosa – psychopathologies characterized by the introjections and projections of intrusive controlling objects, a strict punitive super-ego that resembles the dynamics of inner totalitarian objects. This can be attributed to the increased exposure to the Internet during the COVID-related social isolation, with a decreased possibility for reality testing. The Internet acquired an overbearing influence on all domains of personality development for Generation Z individuals, including on the super-ego. The Internet houses totalitarian cyber-objects that increase their presence and influence in situations of social and developmental unrest, impinge on the development of psychic structures, and can lead to related pathological psychodynamics.
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Darius Leskauskas
Darius Leskauskas, M.D., Ph.D., Prof. in Psychiatry Department of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LUHS). Head of post-doctoral studies in psychotherapy in LUHS. More than 20 years practicing as adult and adolescent psychiatrist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Ex-chairman of Kaunas Society for the Studies in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, training and supervising analyst. Member of Executive Committee of International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS). Co-author in textbooks “Psychodynamic psychiatry”, “Psychotherapy” and others. Current field of scientific interests – impact of cyber-technologies and COVID-19 pandemic on normal and pathological development in adolescence.