The Inner Being, the Self and the Psychic Disorders

Abstract

The notion of an inner being is introduced into psychoanalysis aiming at both considering it a fundamental core and differentiating it from the self. In their relations, greater or lesser influence of the former (inner being) over the latter implies in different modalities of the self since the self tends to organize itself under the influence of the inner being. The distancing of this influence corresponds to the contact distancing of the person with himself. In this case, a factor responsible for psychic disorders is defined, and it is called contact distancing. When this happens, pathologies appear which are originated from the sensoriality and fragility of the self according to specific pathological “choices”. This corresponds to the occurrence of fundamental factors on the self. Based on these ideas, the author will be presenting a model designed to a better understanding of psychic disorders. According to this model, psychic disorders are methodologically organized and both classified and unified according to degrees of contact distancing, which establish correspondences with the degrees of sensoriality and fragility of the self.