SPECIFICS OF MORAL ANXIETY AND IDENTITY STATUSES IN NEUROTIC PERSONALITY STRUCTURES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/3041-2005/2026-2.40Keywords:
moral anxiety, shame, guilt, Superego, conscience, neurotic personality organization, identity statuses, O. Kernberg, J. Marcia, D. CarvethAbstract
The article investigates the relationship between moral anxiety and identity development in individuals with a neurotic personality structure. The relevance of the problem is determined by the lack of integrative theoretical models capable of simultaneously encompassing the structural and processual dimensions of personality functioning. Drawing on the psychoanalytic tradition, moral anxiety is defined as an intrapsychic phenomenon determined by the tension between the Ego and Superego agencies, expressed in experiences of guilt and shame of varying degrees of adaptiveness. Through an analysis of the concepts of S. Freud, D. Carveth, F. Schalkwijk and S. Harding, it is established that this phenomenon is not monolithic: it spans a continuum from constructive guilt aimed at the restoration of relationships to disintegrating self-accusation of a persecutory nature involving chronic shame. The determining factor of a subject's position on this continuum is the degree of rigidity or flexibility of the Superego. Special attention is given to the coexistence of two conceptually distinct dimensions of identity – the structural, represented by the concept of integrated identity in O. Kernberg's theory, and the processual, reflected in J. Marcia's identity status model. Their non-equivalence is demonstrated: preserved structural integration at the neurotic level of personality organization is compatible with various identity statuses – achieved, foreclosed, or moratorium. Based on a systematization of current psychoanalytic and developmental approaches, three typical configurations are described: achieved identity combined with a flexible Superego and a predominance of reparative guilt; foreclosure with a rigid Superego and a dominance of persecutory guilt and chronic shame; moratorium with an ambivalent Superego and an unstable character of moral anxiety. The resulting configurations are considered as theoretical models carrying both diagnostic and psychotherapeutic significance. Directions for further empirical verification of the theoretical findings through the use of standardized psychodiagnostic instruments are outlined
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