Psykosens hjemløshet—Del 2

Abstract

Binder, P.-E. (2004): The homelessness of psychosis: Part 2: The shattering, the broken bond and the road towards the meaning bearing other. Nordisk Psykologi, 56, 3, 233–248.

In psychosis, there seems to be a deficit or failure in relationships to “meaning bearing others”, e.g. relationships to others that provide contexts for primal modes of meaning making. When there is a lack of “holding environment” and “immediate embeddedness”, the world becomes threatening and loses “homely” qualities. Consequently there will also become a lack of creative exploration of the world and healthy uses of projection. This is associated with a lack of “depth” in relationships to meaning bearing others: In psychosis there will be insufficient contact with the “otherness” of others and insufficient recognition of the autonomy of other minds. Possible interaction between intersubjective relationships and neurophysiological states are pointed out. It is maintained that there may be continuity between normal and psychotic states, especially in dreaming and unconscious processes. Both phenomenological and a neurophysiological perspectives are necessary to understand overwhelming emotional pain in psychotic states.