IDENTIFICATIONAl UNCERTAINTY OF THE SELF-EXPLORING SUBJECT IN A LIMINAL STATE

Abstract

This article provides a theoretical analysis of the problem of liminal states of the self-exploration subject in adulthood during the liminal pause.
Based on the psychosynthesis approach, it is established that the leading cause of liminal states is the exhaustive dominance of the protective subpersonality, which leads to threshold self-exploration – the subjective level of the development of liminality.

It is suggested that the conscious self as a subject of self-exploration in the liminal state is not manifested, but is only replaced by identification with multidirectional subpersonalities.

For the first time in the general psychological theory of liminality, the author introduces the concept of identification uncertainty as a result of the awareness of liminal states in which identifications are experienced identically and therefore are not differentiated by the conscious self. It is emphasized that such an awareness is accomplished only in a disidentified manner, as a result of which the liminal state is objectified in the field of consciousness as a surviving (falsely negative) and protective (falsely positive) subpersonalities, which has a pronounced spatial and temporal shift in narrative and imaginative forms.

Based on the example of a singular case of psychotherapy of an adult, an empirical model of identification uncertainty is presented, which includes two basic structural components: survival and protective subpersonalities as multidirectional identifications. Identification uncertainty is proposed to be studied on the basis of symbolically expressed imaginations and narratives according to the following criteria: awareness of subpersonalities or their masks, functions, and type of identification of subpersonalities (masks); awareness of the multi-directionality of subpersonalities as a source of internal conflict; compliance of subpersonalities and masks with groups of ideal models. The growing level of awareness of subpersonalities and the criteria for their qualitative analysis in the process of organized self-exploration indicates an increase in the level of identification uncertainty.