Sensory deprivation refers to: Sleep deprivation as a treatment for depression

Deprivation refers to psycho-emotional state a person in which he is in a stressful state due to the inability to satisfy his usual needs.

Each of us cannot do without standard things in everyday life: good sleep, nutrition, communication with family, and fulfillment at work. If for some reason barriers to their implementation appear, this brings psychological or physical discomfort. As a result, consciousness changes. The lack of social and sensory stimuli leads to personality degradation.

How does deprivation manifest itself?

Depending on the type of disorder, there may be various signs. But there are a number common symptoms, which indicate a disease:

• constant feeling of dissatisfaction;
• aggression;
• increased anxiety;
• depressive states;
• decreased activity;
• loss of interest in familiar things.

In itself, depriving a person of his usual benefits does not provoke a disorder. Deprivation is caused by the attitude of a particular person to certain circumstances. For example, if you limit the food intake of a person who practices fasting or a special diet, then this will not become stressful for him. But if the same thing is done to an individual who is not used to such things, it will cause him physical or emotional suffering. Deprivation is the psychological inability of an individual to adapt to circumstances that have changed.

Types of deprivation

There are two forms of deprivation:

• absolute - when an individual really does not have the opportunity to satisfy his usual needs for food, communication, recreation, education;
• relative - a type of disorder in which a person does not have factors for the development of deviations, since all the necessary benefits are present. But he is not able to enjoy the realization of these benefits. The relative form is a borderline state between the norm and deviation.

If we carry out another classification, then it is customary to distinguish the following types of deprivation:

• sensory - in this case there is no opportunity to receive satisfaction from impressions (no stimulus). The stimulus variety includes sexual (lack of intimate relationships), visual (for example, when a person is placed in a dark room for a long period), tactile (excluding tactile contacts);
• paternal - typical for children who are forced to grow up in a dysfunctional family;
• cognitive - exclusion of the opportunity to develop in cultural sphere, in knowledge of the world;
• social - the inability to realize one’s development in ordinary society due to a certain isolation. Typical for persons who are in prison, compulsory treatment, for children who are raised in orphanages and boarding schools.

Emotional deprivation

Emotions play important role in personality formation. They shape the character of behavior and help to adapt to society. Throughout its development, an individual changes in the emotional sphere, adapting to various circumstances. Emotions help a person understand his role in life and influence consciousness, thinking and perception.

Emotional deprivation leads to the fact that a person does not perceive the fullness of social sphere, the field of knowledge becomes limited. Such factors cannot but influence normal psychological development.

There is an opinion among psychologists that the fundamental moment for the formation positive attitude to life is the conscious desire of parents to have a baby. In this case, a beloved baby is born, in whose subconscious the correct perception of himself and those around him is already embedded.

Next important stage Personality formation becomes the period of early childhood. If at this time he is surrounded by people who cannot sufficiently show the correct emotions, prerequisites arise for the development of deprivation disorders. healthy psychological atmosphere in a family, the emotional connection between parents and child is the key to the formation of a positive attitude towards surrounding things and circumstances. Emotional deprivation is typical for those people who were brought up in an environment that was too emotionally volatile. This leads to social hyperactivity and difficulty establishing stable interpersonal relationships.

If in childhood the person was deprived emotionally, another type of deviation is formed. Various complexes develop, a feeling of melancholy and loneliness appears. Emotional hunger also drains the body physically. Such a baby begins to lag behind in development. If a person appears in his life with whom a close emotional connection is established, a feeling of attachment appears, the situation can change dramatically. A striking example kids can become orphanage who end up in a family where healthy reigns psychological climate. If at the stage of forced isolation from society and lack of attention they experience sensory deprivation, then in the case of acquiring full-fledged parents, healing occurs over time. Physical and mental indicators improve, their perception and attitude towards the world changes.

Maternal mental deprivation

There are situations in life when, for some reason, a child finds himself without a mother. For example, the mother died or she abandoned the baby after his birth. These are classic types of maternal loss that have a deprivative effect on human development. But other options for separation from mother can become a catalyst for the development of deviations. Among them, the most common are:

• due to difficult childbirth, the child is temporarily separated from the parent;
• the mother is forced to leave for a certain period of time without the baby (on a business trip, to study, etc.);
• mother goes to work too early, entrusting raising the child to grandmothers and nannies;
• the baby is given to kindergarten at an age when he is not yet psychologically ready for it;
• Due to illness, the child is admitted to the hospital without his mother.

The above cases are open maternal mental deprivation. There is also a hidden form. It is characterized by psychological tension in the mother's relationship with the child in her physical presence. This is a wrong relationship. In what cases can they be observed?

• when children are born into a family with a small age difference, and the mother is simply physically unable to pay attention to the elders as needed;
• if a woman suffers from a physical or mental illness that prevents her from fully caring for her baby and communicating;
• when there is an atmosphere of tension or hostility between parents in the family;
• if the mother is overly enthusiastic scientific approach in raising a child and absolutely does not listen to either his intuition or individual characteristics your baby.

Maternal deprivation is always experienced by children who were born as a result of an unwanted pregnancy, which influenced the formation of attitudes towards them.

Psychologists note that the foundations for the development of pathological conditions are often laid in children under the age of 3 years. This is the period that is especially important for establishing emotional contact with the mother. If this does not happen, the risk of auto-aggression, depression and lack of perception increases outside world. In adolescence and mature age such a person does not perceive himself and is not able to build normal social relations with other people. There is a version that maternal mental deprivation may underlie a number of autism spectrum diseases.

Paternal deprivation

Ideally, both parents should be involved in raising a child. After all, the influence of each of them is special and irreplaceable. Physical deprivation can be harmful to emotional development human being is no less than the maternal form. What situations influence the formation of negative life dispositions?

• father leaves the family;
• there is a man’s physical presence in the house, but he does not build any emotional connections with the baby (indifference);
• the father realizes his ambitions in relation to the child;
• in the family, role functions are violated: the woman takes over the inherent masculine functions, becomes a leader who actively suppresses masculinity. AND reverse situation, in which the father performs the functions of the mother.

Paterial mental deprivation leads to the fact that the child does not correctly perceive sexual differentiation, becomes emotionally vulnerable and incompetent. When a psychologist begins to work with a patient, he always tries to analyze childhood period and the period of his growing up. As practice shows, many individuals experience an accumulation of ancestral deprivations. And the next generation becomes even more incapable of building relationships correctly, which leads to problems for their children.

Sleep deprivation

There are different types of deprivation. There is a special group that includes sleep deprivation.

To live a full life in full health, a person must get enough sleep. If, for forced or voluntary reasons, he is regularly deprived of sleep, this will immediately affect his psychological and physical state.

We all know cases when, due to urgent work, exams or business trips, we have to sacrifice several hours of rest. If this is a one-time event, it does not pose a danger to the body. But if this happens constantly, the lack of sleep affects your well-being. During rest, the hormone of joy is actively produced. Lack of sleep provokes sleep deprivation. Work is disrupted endocrine system, metabolism slows down. The person begins to suffer from excess weight, headaches and depression.

At all times, one of the most cruel punishments was considered to be depriving an individual of the opportunity to sleep. This was achieved by creating conditions under which rest was unrealistic (loud music, bright light in the face, inability to take any position for sleeping). If a person is deprived of sleep (or he voluntarily refuses it) for several days in a row, this is called total sleep deprivation. How does this affect the body?

• one day without rest - decline physical strength, decreased response;
• two days - motor activity and mental abilities are impaired;
• three days - severe tension headaches begin;
• four days - hallucinations appear, the volitional sphere is suppressed. This is a critical phase of deprivation, after which irreversible processes can occur that pose a threat to life.

No matter how paradoxical it may sound, but with the help of sleep deprivation you can... treat. There are practical studies that have established that artificially depriving a person of the sleep phase can help him get rid of deep depression. This effect is explained in the following way: lack of sleep - stress. Begins active production catecholamines, which are responsible for emotional tone. In this manner shock therapy interest in life returns. Sleep deprivation also successfully relieves insomnia. Of course, such treatment methods must be carried out strictly under the supervision of a specialist.

Considered the most effective treatment method at present, it is compared with electroconvulsive therapy, which relieves depression in a few hours. It allows you to short term bring the patient out of deep sleep and restore normal sleep.

ABOUT therapeutic effect Everyone knows about the effects of starvation on the body. By depriving ourselves of food we can pursue different goals, but the main thing is health improvement. Sleep deprivation (deprivation), voluntary or forced, exposes the body to severe pathological stress.

Until 1966, it was believed that insomnia had only detrimental effects. That is why it has been used since time immemorial as the most sophisticated torture.

Thanks to Walter Schulte, a Swiss psychiatrist, they discovered medicinal properties insomnia. The researcher introduced sleep deprivation into medical practice, How effective method treatment for depressive conditions.

At first glance, this method looks paradoxical: a personexhausted by insomnia, but they don’t let him sleep at all! However, there is a logic to this treatment.

The patient experiences a lack of full-fledged paradoxical sleep; deprivation of even that small part that is observed in him invariably causes stress, a z begins and enhanced production of catecholamines (transmitters and adapters of the most important physiological processes), supporting emotional tone. Increased tone stimulates the overall mental mood.

The result of treatment with sleep deprivation can even be euphoria, which takes out the depressed state.

By the way, even the ancient Romans used prolonged wakefulness (2–3 days) to get rid of melancholy (the word depression was unfamiliar to them).

Studies have shown that the biochemical mechanisms of therapeutic sleep deprivation and therapeutic fasting are similar and are caused by a decrease in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the patient’s blood.

How does the sleep deprivation method work?

The periodic processes of a healthy person are strictly coordinated and obey a 24-hour daily rhythm. This applies to sleep patterns, changes in body temperature, appetite, heart rate, metabolism and blood pressure.

In a depressed patient, many of these processes are disturbed:

The structure of sleep is mismatched,
In women, the menstrual cycle is disrupted,
Mental condition acquires a characteristic: in the morning there is a decrease in appetite, a melancholy mood, lethargy; in the evening these manifestations decrease.

Thus, one of the main factors of depression is mismatch and desynchronization of cyclic physiological and biochemical processes in organism. Deprivation is an attempt to restore the balance between them by changing the order of biological rhythms.

Sleep deprivation is used most often in the treatment of endogenous depression accompanied by elements of apathy:

• decrease in emotional level,
• mental retardation,
• obsessive ideas of futility, guilt,
• self-criticism etc.

The effect of sleep deprivation on various depressive conditions:

Manic-depressive psychosis responds best to treatment, improvement occurs in 74%,
In schizophrenia – in 49.3%,
With neurotic depression – in 32.6%.

Those with melancholy depression recover the fastest, while those with anxious depression recover slower; masked depression is almost untreatable.

The severity of the disease and the effectiveness of deprivation are directly proportional: the more severe the disease, the more effective the treatment.

Elderly patients are less responsive to deprivation treatment.

Like any other disease, it is diagnosed in the early stages. However, there is evidence of the cure of prolonged depression, lasting for a year or more.

Mechanism of the method

It is necessary to increase the duration of wakefulness to 36-38 hours: the patient wakes up as usual, at night and the next day. Next night sleep occurs at the usual time and lasts, as a rule, from 10 to 12 hours.

An improvement in the condition may occur after the first time of deprivation, but it will be short-term, the result must be consolidated - 6 sessions or more.

Features of treatment:

Even for a short time, it is necessary to alternate between passive and active work, books and TV are not advisable. The greatest activity should be planned for the night hours from 1 to 2, and the morning hours from 4 to 6 am; during these periods, drowsiness is increased.

On a sleepless night, you can snack by eating light foods, tea and coffee not recommended. The next day may be accompanied by bouts of drowsiness and mild lethargy. Long walks and light physical activity will help you cope.

Before deprivation, medications containing tranquilizing, sedatives and sleeping pills.

At the beginning of treatment, deprivation is carried out 2 times a week, reducing the frequency to 1 time as the condition improves.

Improvement

The condition improves gradually; patients may not feel positive changes for a long time, but rather experience an exacerbation of the disease.

Maximum relief from the symptoms of depression occurs in the morning, usually the most difficult hours for patients. Mood improves, physical weakness disappears, a feeling of life, sociability and activity appear. In the following hours, the previous state returns gradually or suddenly.

Falling asleep after deprivation is easier, morning symptoms are less pronounced. Repeating the procedure leads to consolidation positive effects: improving mood, appetite and sleep, reducing sad thoughts, understanding and criticism of past depressive experiences comes.

Contraindications

It is believed that sleep deprivation is aimed selectively at certain areas of the brain and does not harm those that are not related to depression. This explains the almost complete absence of side effects and contraindications.

High arterial pressure,
acute or acute chronic diseases.

In no case should such treatment be carried out without prior consultation with a doctor and a thorough medical examination. Sleep deprivation over a long period of time can trigger diseases such as epilepsy.

Sources: A.M. Wayne “Three Thirds of Life”, A. Borbeli “The Mystery of Sleep”, methodological recommendations of the 1980 Ministry of Health of the RSFSR “Sleep deprivation as a method of treating patients with depressive conditions”.

Elena Valve for the project Sleepy Cantata.

Mental deprivation is a mental state that arises as a result of life situations where the subject is not given the opportunity to satisfy some of his basic mental needs sufficiently for a long time.

The child's mental needs are undoubtedly best satisfied by his daily communication with the environment. If for any reason the child is prevented from such contact, if he is isolated from a stimulating environment, then he inevitably suffers from a lack of stimuli. This isolation can be of varying degrees. When completely isolated from the human environment for a long period, it can be assumed that basic mental needs, which were not satisfied from the very beginning, will not develop.

One factor in the occurrence of mental deprivation is the insufficient supply of stimuli - social, sensitive, sensory. It is assumed that another factor in the occurrence of mental deprivation is the cessation of the connection already created between the child and his social environment.

There are three main types of mental deprivation: emotional (affective), sensory (stimulus), social (identity). Depending on the severity, deprivation can be complete or partial.

J. Langmeyer and Z. Matejcek emphasize some conventionality and relativity of the concept of mental deprivation - after all, there are cultures in which something that would be an anomaly in another cultural environment is considered normal. In addition to this, of course, there are cases of deprivation that are absolute in nature (for example, children raised in Mowgli’s situation).

Emotional and sensory deprivation.

It manifests itself in the insufficient opportunity to establish an intimate emotional relationship with any person or the severance of such a connection when one has already been created. A child often ends up in an impoverished environment, ending up in an orphanage, hospital, boarding school or other

closed institution. Such an environment, causing sensory hunger, is harmful to a person at any age. However, it is especially destructive for a child.

As numerous psychological studies show, a necessary condition For normal maturation of the brain in infancy and early childhood, there is a sufficient number of external impressions, since it is in the process of entering the brain and processing of various information from the outside world that the sense organs and corresponding brain structures are exercised.

A great contribution to the development of this problem was made by a group of Soviet scientists who united under the leadership of N. M. Shchelovanov. They found that those parts of the child’s brain that are not exercised stop developing normally and begin to atrophy. N.M. Shchelovanov wrote that if a child is in conditions of sensory isolation, which he has repeatedly observed in nurseries and orphanages, then there is a sharp lag and slowdown in all aspects of development, movements do not develop in a timely manner, speech does not arise, and mental development is inhibited.

The data obtained by N. N. Shchelovanov and his colleagues were so vivid and convincing that they served as the basis for the development of some fragmentary principles of the psychology of child development. The famous Soviet psychologist L.I. Bozhovich put forward the hypothesis that it is the need for impressions that plays a leading role in the mental development of a child, arising approximately in the third to fifth week of a child’s life and being the basis for the formation of other social needs, including social the nature of the need for communication between the child and the mother. This hypothesis contrasts with the ideas of most psychologists that the initial ones are either organic needs (for food, warmth, etc.) or the need for communication.

L. I. Bozhovich considers the facts obtained during the study of the emotional life of an infant to be one of the confirmations of his hypothesis. Thus, the Soviet psychologist M. Yu. Kistyakovskaya, analyzing stimuli that cause positive emotions in a child's first months of life, I discovered that they arise and develop only under the influence external influences on his senses, especially the eye and ear. M. Yu. Kistyakovskaya writes that the data obtained show “the incorrectness of the point of view according to which positive emotions appear in a child when his organic needs are satisfied. All the materials we have received indicate that the satisfaction of organic needs only removes emotionally negative reactions, thereby creating favorable preconditions for the emergence of emotionally positive reactions, but does not in itself give rise to them... The fact we have established is the appearance of the child’s first smile and other positive emotions when fixating an object - contradicts the point of view according to which smiling is an innate social reaction. At the same time, since the emergence of positive emotions is associated with the satisfaction of some need of the body... this fact gives reason to believe that, along with organic needs, the baby also has a need for the activity of the visual analyzer. This need is manifested in positive reactions that are continuously improved under the influence of external influences, aimed at receiving, maintaining and strengthening external irritations. And it is on their basis, and not on the basis of unconditioned food reflexes, that the child’s positive emotional reactions arise and are consolidated and his neuropsychic development occurs.” Even the great Russian scientist V.M. Bekhterev noted that by the end of the second month the child seems to be looking for new impressions.

Indifference and lack of a smile in children from orphanages and orphanages were noticed by many from the very beginning of the activities of such institutions, the first of which date back to the 4th century AD (335, Constantinople), and their rapid development in Europe dates back to approximately the 17th century. There is a well-known saying of a Spanish bishop dating back to 1760: “In an orphanage, a child becomes sad and many die of sadness.” However, as a scientific fact, the negative consequences of staying indoors children's institution began to be considered only at the beginning of the 20th century. These phenomena, first systematically described and analyzed by the American researcher R. Spitz, were called by him the phenomena of hospitalism. The essence of the discovery made by R. Spitz was that in a closed children's institution a child suffers not only and not so much from poor nutrition or poor medical care, but from the specific conditions of such institutions, one of the essential aspects of which is a poor stimulus environment. Describing the conditions of detention of children in one of the shelters, R. Spitz notes that the children constantly lay in glass boxes for up to 15-18 months, and until they got to their feet, they saw nothing but the ceiling, since curtains hung on the sides. The children's movements were limited not only by the bed, but also by the depressed depression in the mattress. There were very few toys.

The consequences of such sensory hunger, if assessed by the level and nature of mental development, are comparable to the consequences of deep sensory defects. For example, B. Lofenfeld found that, according to developmental results, children with congenital or early acquired blindness are similar to deprived sighted children (children from closed institutions). These results manifest themselves in the form of a general or partial delay in development, the emergence of certain motor characteristics and personality traits and behavior.

Another researcher, T. Levin, who studied the personality of deaf children using the Rorschach test (a well-known psychological technique based on the subject’s interpretation of a series of pictures depicting colored and black-and-white blots), found that the characteristics of emotional reactions, fantasy, and control in such children also similar to similar characteristics of orphans from institutions.

Thus, an impoverished environment negatively affects the development of not only the child’s sensory abilities, but also his entire personality, all aspects of the psyche. Of course, hospitalism is a very complex phenomenon, where sensory hunger is only one of the moments, which in real practice is impossible to even isolate and trace its influence as such. However, the depriving effect of sensory hunger can now be considered generally accepted.

I. Langmeyer and Z. Matejcek believe that infants raised without a mother begin to suffer from the lack of maternal care and emotional contact with the mother only from the seventh month of life, and before this time the most pathogenic factor is the impoverished external environment.

According to M. Montessori, whose name occupies a special place in child psychology and pedagogy, the author of the famous system of sensory education, which also went down in history as the Montessori system, which participated in the organization of the first children's homes and nurseries for children the poorest strata of the population, the most sensitive, the most sensitive to the sensory development of the child, and therefore subject to the greatest danger from the lack of various external impressions, is the period from two and a half to six years. There are other points of view, and, apparently, the final scientific solution to the issue requires additional research.

However, for practice, the thesis can be considered fair that sensory deprivation can have a negative impact on the mental development of a child at any age, at each age in its own way. Therefore, for each age, the question of creating a diverse, rich and developing environment for the child should be specifically raised and solved in a special way.

The need to create a sensory-rich external environment in children's institutions, which is currently recognized by everyone, is in fact implemented in a primitive, one-sided and incomplete manner. Thus, often with the best intentions, struggling with the dullness and monotony of the situation in orphanages and boarding schools, they try to saturate the interior as much as possible with various colorful panels, slogans, paint the walls in bright colors, etc. But this can eliminate sensory hunger only by in the shortest possible time. Remaining unchanged, such a situation will still lead to it in the future. Only in this case this will happen against the background of significant sensory overload, when the corresponding visual stimulation will literally hit you over the head. At one time, N.M. Shchelovanov warned that the maturing brain of a child is especially sensitive to overloads created by prolonged, monotonous influence of intense stimuli.

Social deprivation.

Along with emotional and sensory deprivation, social deprivation is also distinguished.

The development of a child largely depends on communication with adults, which affects not only the mental, but also, in the early stages, the physical development child. Communication can be viewed from different perspectives. humanities. From the point of view of psychology, communication is understood as the process of establishing and maintaining purposeful, direct or indirect contact by one means or another between people who are somehow connected to each other psychologically. Child development, within the framework of the theory of cultural-historical development, is understood by Vygotsky as the process of children’s appropriation of socio-historical experience accumulated by previous generations. Gaining this experience is possible by communicating with elders. At the same time, communication plays decisive role not only in enriching the content of children's consciousness, but also determines its structure.

Immediately after birth, the child has no communication with adults: he does not respond to their requests and does not address anyone himself. But after the 2nd month of life, he begins to interact, which can be considered communication: he begins to develop a special activity, the object of which is an adult. This activity manifests itself in the form of the child’s attention and interest in the adult, emotional manifestations the child’s attitude towards the adult, proactive actions, the child’s sensitivity to the adult’s attitude. Communication with adults in infants plays a starting role in the development of responses to important stimuli.

Examples of social deprivation include such textbook cases as A. G. Hauser, wolf children and Mowgli children. All of them could not (or spoke poorly) speak and walk, often cried and were afraid of everything. During their subsequent education, despite the development of intelligence, personality disorders and social connections remained. The consequences of social deprivation are irremovable at the level of some deep personal structures, which manifests itself in distrust (except for group members who have suffered the same thing, for example in the case of children developing in concentration camps), the importance of the feeling “WE”, envy and excessive criticism.

Considering the importance of the level of personal maturity as a factor in tolerance to social isolation, we can assume from the very beginning that the younger the child, the more difficult social isolation will be for him. The book of Czechoslovak researchers I. Langmeyer and Z. Matejcek “Mental deprivation in childhood” provides many expressive examples of what social isolation of a child can lead to. These are the so-called “wolf children”, and the famous Kaspar Hauser from Nuremberg, and essentially tragic cases from the lives of modern children who have not seen or communicated with anyone since early childhood. All these children could not speak, walked poorly or did not walk at all, cried incessantly, and were afraid of everything. The worst thing is that, with a few exceptions, even with the most selfless, patient and skillful care and upbringing, such children remained defective for the rest of their lives. Even in those cases where, thanks to the selfless work of teachers, the development of intelligence occurred, serious disturbances in personality and communication with other people persisted. At the first stages of “re-education”, children experienced an obvious fear of people; subsequently, the fear of people was replaced by unstable and poorly differentiated relationships with them. In the communication of such children with others, importunity and an insatiable need for love and attention are striking. Manifestations of feelings are characterized, on the one hand, by poverty, and on the other hand, by acute, affective overtones. These children are characterized by explosions of emotions - violent joy, anger and the absence of deep, lasting feelings. They have practically no higher feelings associated with a deep experience of art and moral conflicts. It should also be noted that they are emotionally very vulnerable; even a minor remark can cause an acute emotional reaction, not to mention situations that really require emotional stress and inner fortitude. Psychologists in such cases talk about low frustration tolerance.

The Second World War brought a lot of cruel life experiments on social deprivation to children. A thorough psychological description of one of the cases of social deprivation and its subsequent overcoming was given in their famous work by A. Freud, daughter of Z. Freud, and S. Dan. These researchers observed the rehabilitation process of six 3-year-old children, former prisoners of the Terezin concentration camp, where they were sent as infants. The fate of their mothers and the time of separation from their mother were unknown. After their release, the children were placed in one of the family-type orphanages in England. A. Freud and S. Dan note that from the very beginning it was striking that the children were a closed monolithic group, which did not allow them to be treated as to individuals. There was no envy or jealousy between these children; they constantly helped and imitated each other. It is interesting that when another child appeared - a girl who arrived later, she was instantly included in this group. And this despite the fact that the children showed obvious distrust and fear of everything that went beyond the boundaries of their group - the adults who cared for them, animals, toys. Thus, the relationships within the small children's group replaced for its members the relationships with the outside world of people that were disrupted in the concentration camp. Subtle and observant researchers have shown that it was possible to restore relationships only through these intragroup connections.

A similar story was observed by I. Langmeyer and Z. Matejcek “of 25 children who were forcibly taken from their mothers in work camps and raised in one secret place in Austria, where they lived in a cramped old house among the forests, without the opportunity to go out into the yard, play with toys or see anyone other than their three inattentive teachers. After their release, the children also screamed all day and night at first, they did not know how to play, did not smile, and only with difficulty learned to maintain cleanliness of the body, which they had previously been forced to do only by brute force. After 2-3 months, they acquired a more or less normal appearance, and the “group feeling” greatly helped them during readaptation.

The authors give another interesting example, from my point of view, illustrating the strength of the feeling of WE in children from institutions: “It is worth mentioning the experience of those times when children from institutions were examined in a clinic, and not directly in an institutional environment. When the children were in the reception room in a large group, there were no differences in their behavior compared to other children preschool age, who were in the same waiting room with their mothers. However, when a child from an institution was excluded from the team and he was left alone in the office with a psychologist, then after the first joy of an unexpected meeting with new toys, his interest quickly fell, the child became restless and cried, “that his children would run away.” While children from families were in most cases content with the presence of their mother in the waiting room and collaborated with the psychologist with an appropriate measure of confidence, the majority of preschool children from institutions could not be individually studied due to their inability to adapt to new conditions. This was possible, however, when several children entered the room together and the child being examined felt supported by the other children who were playing in the room. The matter here concerns, apparently, the same manifestation of “group dependence”, which - as we have already mentioned - characterized in a particularly pronounced form some groups of children raised in concentration camps, and also became the basis for their future reeducation” (re-education.- Auth.). Czechoslovak researchers believe this manifestation one of the most important diagnostic indicators of “institutional-type deprivation”.

The analysis shows: the older the children, the milder forms of social deprivation manifest themselves and the faster and more successful compensation occurs in the case of special pedagogical or psychological work. However, it is almost never possible to eliminate the consequences of social deprivation at the level of some deep personal structures. People who experienced social isolation in childhood continue to experience distrust of all people, with the exception of members of their own microgroup who have experienced the same thing. They can be envious, overly critical of others, ungrateful, and always seem to be waiting for a trick from other people.

Many similar traits can be seen in boarding school students. But perhaps more indicative is the nature of their social contacts after finishing their studies at the boarding school, when they entered normal adult life. Former pupils experience obvious difficulties in establishing various social contacts. For example, despite a very strong desire to create a normal family, to enter the parental family of their chosen one or chosen one, they often fail on this path. As a result, everything comes to the point that family or sexual connections are created with former classmates, with members of the very group with which they suffered social isolation. They experience distrust and a sense of insecurity towards everyone else.

The fence of an orphanage or boarding school became a fence for these people, separating them from society. He did not disappear even if the child ran away, and he remained when he was married, entering adulthood. Because this fence created a feeling of being an outcast, dividing the world into “Us” and “Them”.

Deprivation situations.

In addition to deprivation itself, there are a number of terms associated with this phenomenon. A deprivation situation refers to such circumstances in a child’s life when there is no opportunity to satisfy important mental needs. Different children exposed to the same deprivation situation will behave differently and derive different consequences from this, because they have different constitutions and different previous development.

For example, isolation is one of the options for a deprivation situation. J. Langmeyer and Z. Matejcek also identify the term consequences of deprivation (“deprivation lesion”), which they use to refer to the external manifestations of the results of deprivation, i.e., the behavior of a child who was in a deprivation situation. If a child has already been in a deprivation situation once, but fortunately it was short-lived and did not lead to severe mental disorders, then they talk about the child’s deprivation experience, after which he will be more hardened or, unfortunately, more sensitive.

Frustration, i.e. the experience of annoyance, etc. due to the blockade of needs, is not deprivation, but a more private concept that can enter into general concept deprivation. If, for example, a toy is taken away from a child, the child may be in a state of frustration (and usually temporary). If a child is not allowed to play at all for a long time, then this will be deprivation, although there is no longer any frustration. If a child at the age of two was separated from his parents and placed in a hospital, then he may react to this with frustration. If he remains in the hospital for a year, and even in the same room, without visits from his parents, without walks, without receiving the necessary sensory, emotional and social information, then he may develop conditions classified as deprivation.

Cases of extreme social isolation can lead to distortion and retardation of mental development only in children of more or less older age, who are already able to secure some kind of existence for themselves and survive in harsh conditions. It's another matter when we're talking about about small children or infants - they usually do not survive, deprived of human society and its care.

Separation is distinguished from social isolation. By the latter, Czechoslovak researchers understand not only the painful separation of the child from the mother, but also any cessation of the specific connection between the child and his social environment. Separation can be sudden or gradual, complete or partial, short or long. Separation is the result of a violation of mutual contact; it affects not only the child, but also the parents. The latter develop anxiety, etc. If separation lasts for a long time, then it turns into social isolation, which was mentioned earlier. Separation has great importance for the development of certain social attitudes in the child. Back in 1946, the English scientist Bowlby published comparative data on the development of 44 juvenile thieves and the same group of minors, but without antisocial tendencies. It turned out that delinquents experienced separation in childhood many times more often than peers without delinquency. Bowlby believes that separation primarily affects the aesthetic development of the individual and the formation of a normal sense of anxiety in the child.

The same deprivation conditions have different effects on children of different ages. With age, the child's needs change, as does his sensitivity to their insufficient satisfaction.

Conclusion

In my work I tried to talk about different types of mental deprivation. Of course, in pure form Each of these types of deprivation can only be identified in special experiments. In life they exist in a rather complex interweaving. It is especially difficult to understand how individual deprivation factors act in childhood when they are superimposed on the developmental process, which includes both physical growth and maturation nervous system, formation of the psyche. This is all the more difficult in conditions of upbringing in a children's institution, when different kinds deprivations are associated with or even are a consequence of maternal deprivation, which occurs as a result of depriving a child from an early age of his mother’s care and warmth.

We can talk about such deprivation not only in relation to abandoned children, orphans, sick children placed in clinics for a long time, but also when the mother is emotionally cold or too busy at work. Maternal deprivation is an important social problem all over the world today, and our country is no exception.

Now we are doing a lot for children who experience maternal deprivation in its extreme forms - for children in orphanages, orphanages, and boarding schools. But the problem is beginning to be recognized more broadly. Many people today are calling to give mothers maximum opportunity to be at home with the child by increasing postnatal leave, switching to a five-day school week, a shorter working day for the mother, additional payment to the father so that the mother has the opportunity not to work.

When discussing the problem of mental deprivation in childhood, we are talking about the dissatisfaction of the child’s needs for mother's love, motor activity, in impressions and culture in in a broad sense words. Psychologists believe that fulfilling the needs of a small child for impressions is more important than satisfying hunger or thirst. The mental development of children inevitably suffers if the child does not leave the room or ward (in case of illness), if his movements are limited or the baby does not have enough toys and contacts with peers.

It is known that children who, due to illness, cannot move for a long time, often suffer from depression, increased excitability and aggressiveness. Babies become fussy when swaddled tightly. Forced restriction of movements always negatively affects the child’s health. This occurs due to a deficiency of sensations from muscles, joints, and tendons that are very important for the state of the nervous system. The child’s body subconsciously tries to overcome limited mobility and a state of motor restriction through pathological habitual actions - finger sucking, nail biting, hair twirling, etc.

For a small child to fully develop, it is absolutely necessary to rock, cuddle, stroke, etc. At the same time, he feels protected, calm and confident. The full development of a child is possible only in contact with the mother, otherwise the baby experiences fears and anxiety with any new stimulus. The child’s activity in learning about the environment is based on a feeling of love for the mother. Trust in the world and openness to the perception of new things are possible with a feeling of constant maternal care. The deficit of emotional warmth that a child experiences in infancy is difficult to compensate for in the future.

Any age is important in accumulating knowledge about the world and developing a child’s personality. But the period from 2 to 6 years is especially significant. However, in life one should strive to ensure that at any age the child is in a diverse, rich, sensory-rich environment. A dull, monotonous environment does not contribute to the formation of a bright human personality.

No less dangerous is the lack of attention and affection on the part of parents - the so-called maternal deprivation . For the full development of a child, it is important that care and warmth for him are concentrated in one person. Most often they are concentrated in the biological mother, but she can be replaced by another adult if he treats the child with love. Multiple and constantly changing contacts with adults do not contribute to effective development baby's emotionality. This is exactly the situation in children's institutions for orphans. The fact is that Small child unable to restore interrupted emotional contact for a long time different people, he becomes indifferent to them.

A study by psychiatrists of the condition of children who were in extreme conditions (bombings, earthquakes, in a war zone) shows that their mental trauma is not catastrophic if parents are present nearby. Being close to them makes the child feel safe. On the contrary, separation from loved ones quickly leads to profound changes in the psyche of children. In children, mental retardation increases, and in older children, severe behavioral disorders occur. The guys become suspicious, distrustful, pugnacious, and vindictive.

Children who grow up “like grass,” without proper attention and care from their parents, are a rather ordinary phenomenon. If a child, especially at an early age, is not told fairy tales, is not read books, is not taught drawing, modeling, is not informed basic information about counting, space, seasons, etc., then the serious consequences of such an attitude will not be long in coming. Indifference to the mental development of a child, even if he was born with good inclinations, over the years leads to a condition indistinguishable from true mental retardation.

In one of the classic experiments of the American scientist H. Harlow, a newborn monkey was separated from its mother and placed in a cage containing two stuffed mother monkeys. Moreover, one surrogate mother was made of wire and could feed the baby through a nipple, while the second did not have the opportunity to feed, but her body was pleasantly soft and warm. Long-term observations they showed that the little monkey spent 16–18 hours with the “soft mother” and only approached the wire one to satisfy her hunger. Harlow explains that the emotional comfort that the monkey experienced near the "soft mother" has leading value in the formation of love and affection for the mother. Moreover, deep love is possible only with close physical contact, and, as experiments show, a feeling of affection remains in a monkey throughout its life. The scientist tells how, many years later, a “soft mother” was placed in the cage of an adult animal and what a strong impression this made on the monkey, who seemed to have long forgotten the events of early childhood.

This phenomenon was described by Ya.A. Comenius, later by J. Itard (educator of the “wild boy from Aveyron”), in the twentieth century by A. Gesell, who analyzed modern attempts to educate children who, due to extreme circumstances, have long been cut off from society. Those carried out in the 40s gained worldwide fame.
20th century studies of children in unfavorable conditions residential institutions (J. Bowlby, R. Spitz); the effect of slowing down and distorting their development is called hospitalism.

A common circumstance causing deprivation is the absence of a father (the so-called “ paternal deprivation "). This may affect many children living with their unmarried or otherwise single mothers. A child growing up without a father is deprived of important male example, which is especially significant for older boys in regulating their behavior, but is also important for girls as a model of their future partner. A fatherless child also suffers from a lack of authority, discipline and order, which are normally personified by the father. While the mother provides the child with the opportunity to experience intimacy human love, the father pave the way for the child and attitude towards human society. Finally, the father represents for children the most natural source of knowledge about the world, work, and technology, contributing both to their orientation towards a future profession and the creation of socially useful goals and ideals. If there is no father, then this has something else indirect deprivation effect . The fact is that if the mother alone has to bear all the economic and educational concerns for the family, then she, as a rule, is so busy that she does not have much time left for the child and even her interest in him weakens. In such cases, the child is left to his own devices for most of the day; if he is not taken care of differently, it can easily happen that he begins to wander, he has more possibilities for offenses, and he may more easily go astray. If the place of the father in the family is taken by the stepfather, and sometimes by the grandfather, then the deprivative influences are suppressed, but here there is more favorable soil for the development of various conflicts, and neurotic disorders arising on this basis are very frequent.

According to Langmeyer and Matejcek, for the full development of a child, the following are necessary: ​​1) diverse stimuli of different modalities (visual, auditory, etc., their lack causes sensory deprivation ; 2) satisfactory conditions for learning and acquiring various skills; the chaotic structure of the external environment, which does not make it possible to understand, anticipate and regulate what is happening from the outside, causes cognitive deprivation ; 3) social contacts (with adults, primarily with the mother), which ensure the formation of personality; their lack leads to emotional deprivation ; 4) the possibility of social self-realization through assimilation social roles, familiarization with public goals and values; limiting this possibility causes social deprivation .

The clinical picture of any form of mental deprivation is manifested by poverty vocabulary, limited by the framework of everyday vocabulary, the use of predominantly simple, undeveloped phrases in speech. There is fragmentation and disorganization semantic structure and linear sequence of statements, loss of the thread of presentation. Violations of sound pronunciation and agrammatism in speech often occur. These speech disorders, as a rule, are combined with insufficient formation of the higher mental functions. The intellectual potential of children does not correspond to their age. The degree of reduction can range from mild to significant.

Prevention of deprivation.

Complex psychological, medical and pedagogical activities with deprived children are carried out in specialized children's institutions. Supposed collaboration specialists of various profiles: speech therapist, psychologist, psychotherapist, psychiatrist. Of decisive importance in the development and formation of speech and other higher mental functions in this group of children is the creation of a favorable socio-psychological climate in the child’s environment. No less important have the organization of general health activities and the conduct of correctional training against the backdrop of increased intellectual and creative activity.

Complex psychological and pedagogical activities, in addition to choosing the profile of the educational institution, include:

1. Conducting a course of speech therapy classes (mainly in group form). Classes should be aimed at developing the child’s speech (including correction of pronunciation, grammatical design of speech structures and teaching coherent statements), expanding vocabulary, forming ideas and figurative-logical thinking. Children with speech delays caused by social deprivation and pedagogical neglect, 45 to 180 lessons are recommended.

2. Logorhythmics and psycho-gymnastics – 20–45 lessons per course.

3. Lesson with a psychologist – 20–45 lessons per course.

4. Psychotherapeutic influence in the form of individual and group psychotherapy.

The duration of the course of correctional measures depends on the level of learning of the child, the possibility of activation speech activity, on the degree of improvement in general somatic status and changes in social and living conditions and is determined by the maximum achievement of results.

Expected results of correction: development of speech, other higher mental functions and intellectual capabilities to age level, expansion of vocabulary and abilities for coherent and consistent expression, strengthening of somatic and psychological status.

Conclusion.

In my work I tried to talk about different types of mental deprivation. Of course, each of these types of deprivation can be isolated in its pure form only in special experiments. In life they exist in a rather complex interweaving. It is especially difficult to understand how individual deprivation factors operate in childhood when they are superimposed on the developmental process, which includes physical growth, maturation of the nervous system, and the formation of the psyche. This is all the more difficult in conditions of upbringing in a children's institution, when various types of deprivation are associated with or even are a consequence of maternal deprivation, which arises as a result of depriving a child from an early age of his mother's care and warmth.

We can talk about such deprivation not only in relation to abandoned children, orphans, sick children placed in clinics for a long time, but also when the mother is emotionally cold or too busy at work. Maternal deprivation is important today social problem all over the world, and our country is no exception.

1. Landgmeyer J., Matejczyk Z. Psychological deprivation in childhood., 1984

2. Pashina “Psychological Journal” No. 2 1995

3. Buyanov M.I. Conversations about child psychiatry. M., 1994

4. Vygotsky L. S. Fundamentals of defectology. St. Petersburg, 2003

5. Kovalev V.V. Psychiatry childhood: Guide for doctors. M., 1995

Psychological deprivation is grief that follows on the heels. .

Psychological deprivation is a topic that we regularly encounter in consultation with a psychologist. In this article we tell you what psychological deprivation is, where it comes from, what consequences it leads to, and what to do about it. We remind you that all our articles on psychology are written with significant simplifications and are designed for the average person, and not for professional psychologist. Our articles on psychology are intended to broaden people's horizons, improve mutual understanding between the client and the psychologist, and are not practical guide By psychological assistance to someone or to yourself. If you really need psychological help, contact a good psychologist.

What is psychological deprivation?

The term psychological deprivation comes from Latin word deprivatio, which means loss or deprivation. In fact, psychological deprivation- it's long lasting psychological experience, which arises as a result of the fact that a person was deprived of something very important in life, and was deprived against his desire; he cannot live normally without it, and is unable to change the situation. Those. To put it simply, psychological deprivation is the experience of violent deprivation of something very important, and a person becomes fixated on this experience for a long time, sometimes for the rest of his life.

Examples psychological deprivation

Typical examples of psychological deprivation are tactile and emotional deprivation.

In the case of tactile deprivation, a child during the sensitive period does not receive the required amount of tactile sensations from his parents: touching, stroking, etc. This is very similar, for example, to hunger suffered in childhood. Chances are high that adult life there will be consequences of tactile deprivation suffered in childhood. For example, when a child grows up, an insatiable neurotic need for tactile sensations may arise, expressed in sexually promiscuous behavior with frequent changes partners - if only someone stroked and caressed them. And the roots of this adult behavior are that in the past, parents, due to busyness, negligence or their own character, were not attentive enough to the tactile needs of the child.

In the case of emotional deprivation, the same thing happens with emotions. Emotionally cold, alienated or busy parents did not give the child the amount of emotions and the types of emotions that are necessary for psychological comfort. However, why only parents?! Emotional deprivation can also appear in an adult when living with an emotionally dry or alienated partner. As a result, a natural hunger for emotions arises (sometimes in the form of an affective disorder): for example, a person constantly looks for emotions on the side (like hungry people look for food). He's looking for a lot of emotions strong emotions, this neurotic need is insatiable, relief does not come, but a person cannot stop his pursuit of emotions.

Close and interrelated concepts

Psychological deprivation is close to the concepts of grief, frustration and neuroticism.

The feeling of acute grief and the state of mourning occurs in a person with a one-time irreparable loss, for example, in the event of death loved one. And psychological deprivation occurs when there is a chronic (rather than one-time) deprivation of something important, and the victim often has the feeling that the situation can be corrected if, for example, he explains his desires and needs to another person. Grief and psychological deprivation are very similar. Metaphorically speaking, psychological deprivation is grief that follows a person’s heels. In essence, psychological deprivation is grief over psychological deprivation stretched out over years with the illusion that everything can be fixed. And because of the duration negative experiences and the presence of such illusions, chronic psychological deprivation often causes more damage to the human psyche than a one-time acute grief without illusions.

Psychological deprivation is close to the state of frustration - the experience of failure. After all, a person with psychological deprivation often experiences the feeling that he is a failure in satisfying those desires and needs that are the basis of his psychological comfort.

And of course, psychological deprivation is close to the concept of neuroticism, because Psychological deprivation very often causes a neurotic, insatiable need for what a person was deprived of before or now.

The concepts: psychological deprivation, grief, frustration, neuroticism, etc., are not just close to each other terminologically, but are naturally related to each other by mechanisms of psychological response. After all, in essence, all this is various shapes a person's reaction to a subjectively uncomfortable or unbearable life, imposed on him by close people or society. That is why psychological deprivation often occurs in cases that in English literature are designated by the word abuse - mistreatment of children and loved ones, as well as in cases where this mistreatment is caused by unceremonious interference of society in privacy person. Psychological deprivation and related phenomena are often negative consequences psychological violence over the desires and needs of a person who could not get out of the position of victim.

Social causes of psychological deprivation

Social causes of psychological deprivation are typical.

– Insufficient competence or psychological uniqueness of parents in matters of upbringing and mental health of their child. For example, in some families, parents are not attentive enough to feedback from the child, and, as a result, the child does not receive something very important in his life, which the parents themselves may mistakenly consider to be of secondary importance. For example, the child does not receive enough of those tactile sensations or positive emotions.

– Unsuccessful choice of a partner in adulthood, which often continues the scenario started by the parents. And then these two negative scenarios of psychological deprivation - parental and partner - add up, and the person lives psychologically very uncomfortable.

– Cultural and subcultural traditions, when it is not customary to satisfy basic psychological needs human beings, but this does not make them cease to exist. For example, the need to express emotions outwardly, which is very important, but can be suppressed in some families or even communities - for example, when teaching "masculinity" in boys.

– State and social interests superiors, when the desires and psychological needs of a person do not matter to these superiors.

Individual causes of psychological deprivation

Individual causes of psychological deprivation are also typical.

– Inadequacy or clinical idiosyncrasy of parents and any superiors on whom they depend mental health and psychological comfort of a person.

– Individual low resistance to psychological deprivation, similar to what happens with low stress resistance.

Psychological reactions of victims of psychological deprivation.

The psychological reactions of a victim of psychological deprivation are so individual that they can be listed endlessly. For example, there are often isolation, social maladjustment, aggression or self-aggression, neurotic disorders, psychosomatic diseases, depression and various affective disorders, dissatisfaction in sexual and personal life. As often happens in psychology, psychological reactions of the same form can be generated by completely different reasons. That's why you need to avoid the temptation to quickly make a psychological diagnosis of yourself or another person based on superficial observations and a few reading articles on psychology. There are very great chances that the diagnosis you made for yourself will be incorrect.

Psychological assistance for psychological deprivation

In case of suspected psychological deprivation, the psychologist’s actions are consistent and logical.

– Test your assumptions using a series psychological consultations, and better (much better!) with the help of a psychodiagnostic procedure.

– If the causes of psychological deprivation continue to exist in the client’s life, lead the client to a real change in conditions, image and lifestyle so that the causes giving rise to psychological deprivation disappear.

– If necessary, conduct a course of psychological assistance (psychotherapy) in order to correct the negative consequences of psychological deprivation that has existed for a long time in a person’s life. Those. Having removed the cause, it is now necessary to remove the effect.

– Carry out social and personal adaptation of a person to a new life.

The process of psychological assistance to a person in case of psychological deprivation is lengthy, because psychological deprivation is often much more destructive in consequences than, for example, cases traditionally considered difficult in the practice of a psychologist: the death of a loved one, one-time psychological trauma, etc. And this is the danger of psychological deprivation for the client and the real difficulties in the work of a psychologist.

© Authors Igor and Larisa Shiryaev. The authors provide advice on issues of personal life and social adaptation(success in society). You can read about the features of the analytical consultation “Successful Brains” by Igor and Larisa Shiryaev on the page.

2016-08-30

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