Saturday, August 22, 2009

Szondi study grouo Stage III With Stage III things grows more complex with Ego growth.


Stage III, Szondi's "Paroxymal Ego" or "restless kids".

With Stage III things grows more complex and if forward Ego growth is sufficiently frustrated then our testological data supports the concept that children at times fall back to some of its older baby-like Ego modes.
This regressive quality seems clear to us when adults act childishly emotionally using aspects that are paroxysmal in form, Crying, trembling, hitting, kicking stomping and whining, stuttering, etc. Often associated with such displays is also a testing out what the limits are that they can go to in order to get their way about something.

This Sch-picture is found most frequently in children between four and seven years of age. The frequency of this ego picture in adults is about a third of that in children. (About 4 per cent as against 12 per cent.) [Deri]


Despite the growing child's occasional regressions (perhaps as a combination biologic growth and developing learning skills) almost every person completes the passage through states III and on to IV, V, without budging from [p-] as its mode of projection, and usage in participation with others and its world.
[p-] the Szondi interpretive empirics 'reads' as one who uses unconscious projection as its main mode of reaching to and finding satisfaction of its needs outside itself.
The [p+] mode of using mainly conscious modes of projection (abcent here) as far as we can determine does not appear (with a few exceptions) until latency (range usually 7 to 10) and grows more common with puberty and high school age and even then, it is found in far fewer than the majority who still stay [p-]. This attracts our attention because [p+] we, from empiric observations adds support for the belief that [p+] is a marker of potential for 'rational' self censoring and verbal image use. In addition, at the same time, represents an opening of a path to obsessional disorders.


Of course, to say that these Sch configurations correspond to any particular developmental stages or clinical association is arbitrary, but useful for us to archive a general overview that can permit us to more easily recognize actual test findings that do or do not fit such "Stages" as preconceived. This is a reminder that no one knows everything in this difficult to explore field and all we think we know may not explain all the possibilities of any specific case.
Nevertheless, our rank order numbers aid us to indicate the approximate succession of expected ego-development.
Summary:
On the basis of our findings, we are justified in saying that in 4 or 5 year olds, State III, (growing uncommon by age 7), that [k± p-] more often follows the childish narcissism stage of [k+ p-] than does a move to the completely minus [k-] which belong to the next two stages [k- p0], [k- P+].

According to Susan Deri, in a relatively short time span, the characteristic Ego [k±p-]] appears as one of the four most frequent Sch configurations in four year olds; and in the group of five year olds we find it as having doubled its frequency.

Susan Deri goes on to attribute the sudden increase of this ego-picture in this median age 5 group as "corresponds to the children's increased reality testing, or in psychoanalytic terminology, it indicates the increasing power of the reality principle over the pleasure principle."

"This means that the child has already discovered not only that he and the environment are two different things (transition from the adualistic (stage I) to the dualistic (stage II) but also that the environment is something one has to adjust to, at least to some extent, and at some times (transition from stage II to stage III). In stage III, the child is still able to indulge in his fantasy-plays; in collectively modified game and reading exercises...however they no longer have the same substitute value for reality as they did in the previous stage. "
"..The mechanism of projecting any fantastic wish onto others (k+,p-) no longer works as well, as it worked before as the child is much more aware and remembers has better awareness than previously what is just pretend, what is real and what triggers hostility and punishment and fails to satisfy its wishes. In this it almost seems as if they would educate themselves for testing reality."

"Whether this change in their relationship to themselves and to the world has been brought about by having been subjected to parental and other environmental "powers," or whether the change is based more on some sort of an indigenous "law" of development, can not be determined; at least not on the basis of our test data. "

"The fact is that their behavior as well as their test profiles shows that something drastic is happening at this age in regard to their relationship to reality."

"The ambivalence in regard to whether they should still attempt to free themselves from the limitations of the realistic world, or give in and adjust to the limitations as unavoidable, is reflected in the [k±] factor."

"On the other hand, the fact that they are still children living out their needs in play and education directed simulations yet done without being aware of what these needs really are, is in the test shown by the continued [p-] "



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The characteristic physical signs of restlessness of children's and the adults equivalent led Szondi to speak of [k±p-] as being the, "Ego paroxysmal".
[Children in this "in-between" stage of Ego-development are extremely active and restless physically; they are constantly "on the go," climbing, running, bicycling, etc. We assume that the driving force for this restlessness derives its intensity from the child's unconscious wish to free himself from the restraints of reality through activity rather than through the fantasy of the younger child.
In any age group, [k± p-] is characteristic of subjects who are consciously fighting for the freedom of their egos, who, on the one hand rebel against external laws, and on the other hand, do not dare to ignore these laws. [Deri]

Adults

1. Symptoms of restlessness at the physical as well as at the psychologic level. They like to change their environment, enjoy occupations involving travelling, enjoy changing their group of friends and sometimes even their type of work or profession.
2. People with this ego setting, feel driven by undefinable forces and crave for change in general.
3. In some, their behavior often seems inconsistent not only to the onlooker, but to themselves.
4. They can feel dissatisfied in any situation, which seems to imply stability, but are unable to give rational reasons for their dissatisfaction.
5. Some may due to their wish to conform, may drive themselves into exactly such situations which imply submission to some sort of rules and limitations, and from which they then, seek to escape.
6. The pathologic implications of this Sch configuration refer to various forms of 'paroxysmal symptoms'.
7. Even the relatively well-adjusted subjects in this Stage III category, can best be described as paroxysmal individuals, because of their psychomotor as well as their physical restlessness.
8. The pathologic manifestations of the Ego setting called /paroxysmal/ by Szondi, when reinforced by certain setting in the Paroxysmal Vector (The Vector should not be confused with the Ego setting.) may result in excessive drive or conflict involve a wide range of possible symptoms from real epileptic grand-mal seizures to stuttering.
9. [k± p-], is found in certain types of antisocial adults, often the unstable vagrant.
10. Sudden bursts of obsessional thinking [k0 p+] (We believe this is brief or so transient it is seldom is found in our test data, but was reported as significant in the subject's symptom history).
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Children,
1. Truancy from school, or in running away from home. These are the usual reasons why one finds so many children who are sent to the juvenile court giving this particular reaction in the Sch Vector. -[Deri]
2, Hyperactivity? As used in today's classification system? Not researched.
3. Attention deficit? [You would have to include some other various Sch settings and other impulse disorders to assert this.] - Not researched, but likely connected with significance in some specific cases,

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