THE PROCESS OF SEPARATION AND INDIVIDUATION AS THE RISK FACTOR IN PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES

Abstract

The process of separation and individuation is a developmental psychological process, which takes place at various phases of child development within his first three years of life. These phases include the Normal Autistic Phase, the Normal Symbiotic Phase, the Separation-Individuation Phase (with sub-phases Differentiation, Practicing and Rapprochement, On the Way to Object Con­stancy) and the Final Separation and Psychological Birth of the Human Infant. Undisturbed transition through the developmental phases leads to the es­tablishment of psychological structure in the hu­man infant, which means that he reaches autonomy and independence, thus becoming an individual. For children which were born with physical dis­abilities and have their intellectual capacities pre­served (i.e. in cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy etc.), the fulfillment of this process is endangered, because their development was stuck at the Nor­mal Symbiotic Phase due to two types of factors. The first group represents factors of physical dis­ability (i.e. impossibility to move, obtain inde­pendent experiences and, consequently, the inabil­ity to detach from the Object), while the second group represents reactions to this hindrance (i.e. over-protection, which further thwarts attempts to detach from the Object).

Keywords

• the process of separation and indi­viduation
• children and youths with physical dis­abilities
• development of psychological structure
• independence
• and autonomy.