Many do not even realize that deep complexes from childhood become the key to overwhelming success in the future. Today we will talk about the psychological types of protection, namely compensation and hypercompensation.
Learn the meaning of the term
From the Latin language - "compensation". Compensation in psychology is the reanimation of the destroyed balance of mental and psychophysiological processes by reviving the reverse reflex or stimulus. The term "defense mechanisms" was introduced by the Austrian psychologist Z. Freud in 1923.
Many experts believe that compensation in psychology is an autonomous model of protection against existing complexes. The individual will try to fill with triumph the sphere in which he felt inferior. From the position of compensation, the immorality of adolescents, their behavior with hostile illegal actions aimed at the individual, is also analyzed.
Another demonstration of the defense mechanism will be the replenishment of unfulfilled desires and unfulfilled events due to over-realization in other spheres of life. For example, a frail, physically undeveloped person who is unable to fight back “on his fists” gains moral pleasure by humiliating his pursuer with the help of his sharp mind and erudition. People who use compensation as the most suitable type of psychological defense are usually visionaries who are in search of the ideal in different areas of life.
This is nothing more than a protective mechanism of the psyche that independently eliminates or makes up for the negative traits of a person’s character. Using this method, a person either compensates for negative characteristics or develops new ones. For example, a short man suffering from this complex directs all efforts to the status growth of a person. Achieves this goal due to its high motivation.
Student and follower of Z. Freud - Alfred Adler
Alfred Adler, like his colleague, believed that the baby develops as a person until the age of five. But contrary to Freud, he considered man in the context of social relations, from the very beginning he ranked him as a social being. I believed that the social factor in the development of personality prevailed over biological instincts (as Freud believed). He regarded the individual as one with society.
The theory of compensation and overcompensation is his main work, according to which compensation in psychology is the formation of the individual as a person, through overcoming inferiority by making up for shortcomings. Thanks to compensation, he believed, it was possible to compensate for the missing character traits, real or imaginary mental ailment.
What is the meaning of the theory?
It lies in the readiness and desire of man to defeat his inferiority with the help of overcompensation. There are several possible outcomes of this type of protection, the outcome will depend on the level of development of a sense of community.
A baby who grew up in a healthy psychological family and was not deprived of love, care and attention will gain a developed sense of community. In adulthood, he will improve to bring benefits to society.
If a sense of community is not developed, overcompensation will be aimed at achieving dominance and dominion, with the goal of subjugating society through the use of aggression and other anti-moral norms of behavior and means. As an example, A. Adler presented the activities of A. Hitler and N. Bonaparte.
Let us give an example of compensation in psychology. “Since I can’t draw, I’ll do my best for a new business, where it’s better, and I’ll start to do chemistry.”
What does hypercompensation mean in psychology?
It involves strengthening efforts in the same field, we continue the above example: “I will begin to study more painstakingly and diligently!” A good example will be the successes of Paralympics. People with physical limitations do not stop, but thanks to willpower, they achieve tremendous heights in a painful physical sphere.
Kinds
Compensation in psychology is the replenishment, smoothing and formation of destroyed or underdeveloped functions, the reorganization of preserved options for the renovation of disturbed ones, the acquisition in the process of formation and training of ways of activity and behavior that will contribute to getting used to society and merging with it.
There are two types of it:
- Systemic When one component has lost its function, and the rest take it upon themselves. For example, the restoration of speech with its local absence or impairment, it is at a biological level.
- Intersystem. Here, the whole system is disturbed, and the rest of the components take over its functions. The functional system is rebuilt, and new elements from other nervous structures are included in the interaction.
Damage to any organ or function in the tandem of the body’s ongoing activity indicates the coordinated work of compensatory mechanisms. In this situation, life continues in new uncomfortable conditions at the same time as the compensation process.
Let's talk about the main categories of special psychology
The latter studies the principles of psychological development and activities of people with mental and physiological disabilities. So, the concept of compensation in psychology is as follows. This is the process of replenishing existing frustrated or defectively developed functions, with the help of whole or partially reorganized ones. Let's talk about the tandem of compensation and correction in special psychology.
We give the definition of correction. This procedure of editing various transformed human functions relates to external influences. It implies a certain methodology for influencing an individual in order to correct defects. Her methods are used to restore various disorders of body functions.
Catch the difference
If compensation is a process in psychology of replenishing a frustrated or lost function, then correction is basically defined as the correction of various violations.
Thus, the difference between the processes is determined by the degree or severity of violations of any ability. And now let's talk a little about compensating for sensations in psychology.
We reveal the essence of the issue
The lines of the poet B. Slutsky say that a person who has lost his sight, hearing and touch will never lose his feeling and worldview, because his nature will find a different path, and his body will find other treasures of knowledge.
But in reality, look: a person who has lost one of the channels connecting him with the world around him, certainly experiences it very hard, but at the same time is so rearranged that he changes all established principles and habits, lifestyle.
This can be seen in the example of the great composer Beethoven, who at 26 years old lost his hearing. His last musical creations were riddled with tragedy, sincerity and pain.
So, in psychology, compensation is a kind of “lifesaver” that appears when the properties of individual human senses are lost. In other words, the remaining functioning sensory organs take responsibility for the restoration of activities that have lost their working capacity.
In the blind, other senses become aggravated. But people who are deprived of sight and hearing deserve the greatest respect. After all, their soul is a deep, unknown storeroom, and this is worthy of admiration.
This is Nikolai Ostrovsky, Olga Skorokhodova. As a baby, she experienced a severe illness, meningitis and lost her sight and hearing. Despite everything, she learned to write and even read, she graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University. She became a researcher, being the first to achieve this title, having such an ailment. Moreover, she became a defectologist, teacher, writer and poetess. Each line of her works was filled with power and courage. In this case, compensation gives her a new quality - the victorious fortitude, making her a great person. Just think, devoid of perception of the beauties of nature, birdsong, the sound of rain, the whisper of trees, she, like all people, was looking for love, striving to achieve beauty and infinity. Each experience, touch to the living was read in her poems.
This is hypercompensation, which is to develop data that is defective or weakly expressed.
These and many other examples of legendary personalities show us the positive result of human self-realization. But, unfortunately, many negative consequences are also known, which are expressed in general hatred of society, with a sense of superiority over everyone. Such a hypercompensation reaction occurs when the desire to prove significance and usefulness by humiliating others becomes an end in itself. This allows you to feel your splendor.
So, in our article we examined issues such as compensation and hypercompensation, gave examples from life. Compensation is designed to respond quickly to the signal of internal disturbances in order to avoid imbalance with the environment and block the possible loss of integrity.