In the last text that I published in this blog, we dealt with the issue of personality for psychoanalysis. As we saw, the understanding of this concept is indispensable to continue on the path of psychoanalysis, either professionally or just as a personal interest. Still in the last text we saw that the personality of all individuals can be understood through three mental structures. They arePsychosis, Neurosis and Perversion.

We also saw that once the personality is defined within one of the structures.

We will now look at each of them in more detail, including their subdivisions. Here we go.

One of the essential points when it comes to understanding these mental structures mentioned above is their functioning. Each one of them has, according to Freud, a specific defense mechanism. This defense mechanism is nothing more than an unconscious way that the individual's mind finds to deal with the suffering that comes from the Oedipus Complex .

An overview of the differences between Psychosis, Neurosis and Perversion

• Psychosis Psychoanalysis can treat the psychotic, but with some limitation, because there is no "outside view" that allows the psychotic to understand and change his condition.
• Neurosis It is a less serious mental condition than psychosis, but can significantly affect a person's life. It is characterized mainly by anxieties, phobias, manias, or obsessive behaviors. It is the type of mental structure that psychoanalysis is most active in, because the neurotic suffers with his or her symptoms and can find in therapy a place to reflect and overcome them.
• Perversion It can include sadomasochism, fetishism, voyeurism, zoophilia, etc. When perversion implies a nuisance for the subject or for the physical integrity of others, it is considered a mental health problem and can be treated with professional help. It is often said that, unlike the neurotic, the pervert revels in his condition.Often, perversion is also understood as a behavior of annihilation of the other.

In the following, we will see more details and examples of these three psychic structures.

Psychosis

In the structure called Psychosis, we find three further subdivisions: paranoia, autism, and schizophrenia. The defense mechanism of this structure is known as Foraclusion or Forclusion, a term developed by Lacan.

The psychotic would find outside himself everything that he excludes from within. In this sense, he would include outside the elements that could be internal. The problem for the psychotic is always in the other, in the external, but never in himself.

At Paranoia or Paranoid Personality Disorder The subject feels persecuted, watched, and even attacked by the other.

In Autism, it is about the other that almost doesn't exist. One isolates oneself from the other and runs away from coexistence and communication with the other. In schizophrenia, the other can appear in countless ways. The other is the outburst, a stranger, a monster or something else. In the case of schizophrenia What becomes more evident is psychic dissociation.

Another characteristic of Psychosis is that, unlike what happens to individuals with other mental structures, the person himself ends up revealing, even if in a distorted way, his symptoms and disturbances.

Some Symptoms of Psychosis

The symptoms can vary from patient to patient, but in general, they are symptoms that are aimed at changes in the individual's behavior, some of which are:

• Mood swings
• Confusion in Thoughts
• Hallucinations
• Sudden changes in feelings

Neurosis

Neurosis, on the other hand, is divided into hysteria and obsessive neurosis.

So while the psychotic always finds outside himself the problem, and ends up revealing his disturbances, even if in a distorted way, the neurotic acts in the opposite way.

The problematic content is kept secret. And not only from others, but from the individual who feels it. The neurotic keeps the external problem inside himself. This is what the repression or repression is about.

Therefore, in order for some contents to remain repressed or repressed, neurosis causes the individual to split the psyche. Everything that is painful is repressed and remains obscure, causing sufferings that the individual can barely identify - only feel. Because he cannot identify them, the person starts complaining about other things, about symptoms he feels (and not about the cause).

In the case of hysteria, the individual keeps circling around the same unsolvable problem. It is as if the person can never find the true cause of his frustration, hence the constant complaints. It is also possible to identify a constant search for an object or an idealized relationship, in which the individual deposits that repressed frustration. This, logically, leads to morefrustrations.

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In Obsessional Neurosis the individual also keeps circling around the same problems. In this case, however, there is a strong tendency to organize everything around him. This need for external organization would be a mechanism to avoid thinking about the real problems repressed inside.

Perversion

The specific defense mechanism of perversion is denial. It can be understood through fetishism.

Freud says that many individuals who analyzed with him presented fetishes as something that would only bring them pleasure, something even praiseworthy. These individuals never came to him to talk about this fetishism, he appreciates it only as a subsidiary discovery.

This is how denial The refusal to acknowledge a fact, a problem, a symptom, a pain.

Psychosis, Neurosis and Perversion: another perspective

Another way to understand and analyze the psychosis, neurosis and perversion presented (Psychosis, Neurosis and Perversion) is from the type of distress specific to each of them. In this perspective we also include Depression, which is related to Psychosis. There would be, for example, the Manic-depressive Psychosis - which is currently called Bipolar Disorder.

In this way we can say about psychosis, neurosis and perversion:

• In the case of Psychosis His pain would always result from the other, from his surrender to the other (foraclusion). This way of thinking is what prevents many psychotics from seeking analysis or therapy.
• At Depression , The individual cannot feel good enough for his own expectations. Personal improvement is never enough. We can say, to be more specific, that the anguish of depression is the anguish of self-realization. The feeling of self-diminishment would result from a narcissistic wound.
• At Hysteria We find the anguish of permanence. The individual's desire never remains - there is a constant change in the object on which he places his will. Therefore, the anguish is the anguish of remaining fixed in a single place or desire.
• At Obsessive Neurosis The opposite of what occurs in hysteria is identified: the desire seems dead. The anguish would be precisely the anguish to change, since the individual desires permanence.
• A Perversion This is because the pervert does not see the anguish, or, at least, does not see it as coming from perversion. We could say, therefore, that he denies his anguish.

(Credits of the featured image: //www.psicologiamsn.com)