The organization of the self: from guidano's psychopathological derivation to the adaptive meaning of construction of reciprocity.

Abstract

Following Guidano’s contributes, in latest years I have investigated adaptive physiological values of Personal Meaning Organizations. In fact, reciprocity with the primary care-givers drives individual adaptive abilities toward construction of the more useful Personal Meaning Organization (PMO) with respect to the own developmental environment. Predictable and invariable care-givers behaviors allow inward focus and physical sight of reciprocity: when reciprocity is high, “controller” PMO grow up; when it is low, “detached” PMO grow up. The “controller” closure is focused on needs of protection/exploration; the “detached” closure is focused on needs of expressing in isolation contexts. Not predictable and variable care-givers behaviors allow outward focus and semantic sight of reciprocity: when reciprocity is high, “contextualized” PMO grow up; when it is low, “principles-oriented” PMO grow up. The “contextualized” closure reads the single changes of the relational environment; the “principles-oriented” closure is centered on the classification of antithetical aspects of reality. In psychotherapy, by focusing on the PMO it is possible to recognize and pull out adaptive individual resources, improving skills in controlling perturbing emotions and in finding new and more flexible behavior strategies.