Regression is a notion that refers to the act of returning or going back. With origin in the Latin word regressio, the term has different uses according to the context (Context is a term that derives from the Latin word contextus and refers to everything that surrounds, either physically or symbolically, an event. From the context, therefore, an event can be interpreted or understood).
Regression is a psychological defense mechanism that consists in regressing to a previous state or level of development. It occurs when the subject is faced with a conflict, stress, anxiety or trauma that cannot be resolved in an adaptive way. It involves a return to ways of thinking, behavior or emotions that were considered overcome or left behind in previous stages of life.
According to psychology, regression is a regression to a previous state or level of development. It is a defense mechanism that arises when there is a conflict that the subject is unable to resolve.
Psychoanalysis usually refers to regression as a return to a stage that had already been overcome. It often implies, in this sense, adopting again modes of behavior, relationships and ways of thinking that are inferior in terms of their structuring and complexity.
In order to understand what regression consists of, it is necessary to take psychic processes as phenomena that have a trajectory. Regression supposes that, from a certain point, one returns in reverse direction to another stage that had been left behind.
Let us think of a material analogy: if an individual is safe in a cave but on coming out notices a danger that he thinks he cannot cope with, he is likely to go back in. While this may respond to our survival instinct, it also condemns us to a state from which we cannot evolve mentally and emotionally. The hero figure is characterized by a reckless nature, and in a case like this would face danger despite having little chance of overcoming it.
According to Sigmund Freud’s research work, regression takes place in the face of impulses or thoughts to which the individual cannot adapt to accept them. Moreover, this defense mechanism can be both transient and chronic. Freud also pointed out that during psychosexual development people can become psychologically trapped in one of the stages, to the point of not being able to continue moving forward. This phenomenon is called fixation.
The intensity of fixation as defined by Freud is directly and proportionally related to the risk of responding with regression to psychosocial stress. While originally the occurrence of this mechanism in adulthood was associated with neurosis, it is now seen as something that can be positive in certain difficult stages, with potential benefits for creativity and problem solving.
Regression
At this point it is necessary to remember that this is a subject with more than one point of view and with theories that are still evolving today. According to the celebrated psychoanalyst Michael Balint, for example, there are two kinds of regression: benign (in childhood and artistic development) and malignant (associated with the Oedipus complex).
The parapsychology, on the other hand, speaks of regression to name images that can appear in the mind of an individual about a supposed past that would have lived in a different existence. To achieve regression, various resources that alter consciousness, such as hypnosis, are used.
This pseudoscience maintains that the human being is able to recall past lives. With regression, thus, each subject could know who he or she was hundreds or thousands of years ago and, in this way, solve current disorders or traumas. It is important to keep in mind that these claims are not endorsed by the scientific community since there is no empirical evidence to prove their validity.
Similarly, there are many people who claim to be able to make use of regression to know their past lives, and thanks to this they set up businesses of different types that give them a lot of money but also put in doubt their reputation and veracity by mixing a supposedly deep issue with materialism. Just as it happens with astrologers and psychics, never in history has a proof of their powers been recorded on video.
Psychological regression is a defense mechanism in which a person reverts to more childish patterns of behavior, especially under stress or strain. It is as if the person “regresses” to an earlier stage of emotional development to cope with conflict or anxiety.
What is regression and its relation to psychoanalysis?
Regression as a psychological defense mechanism and its relation to psychoanalysis.
Adult Child Regression
Regression is a psychological defense mechanism in which a person adopts certain behaviors from an earlier developmental stage. The subject leaves behind age-appropriate coping strategies and exhibits earlier, more childlike patterns of behavior.
Regression is a form of regression, bringing back a time when the person felt safe and cared for.
What are defense mechanisms?
Defense mechanisms are the coping techniques we use to try to decrease the intensity of any negative, unpleasant and/or threatening feelings. We all use them at one time or another, and they are essential to maintaining positive mental health.
All of us face stressful situations from time to time, and everyone tries to cope as best they can, some may cry to provoke a catharsis, others prefer to talk to a friend for relief, some meditate to calm the mind, etc. These are all mature or “adult” ways of coping with stress and anxiety. However, some people adopt the tool of regression when faced with a stressful and anxiety-causing situation, which means that they pick up certain behavioral patterns from earlier or even infantile developmental stages.
Why does regressive behavior occur?
Like any other defense mechanism, regression is used to avoid having to face a negative emotion in all its intensity. When a situation is very unpleasant or threatening, it can lead to a destructive effect on a person’s mental health. When she regresses or reverts to an earlier stage, she does so because that stage reminds her of the time when the stress-inducing factors were absent. It is, for her, a safer, calmer stage, where her parents or an adult would probably make the stress go away. So, by going back there, she regains all those feelings of security and can handle the situation better.
However, when someone regresses, both the stage they go to and the type of behavior they engage in differs from person to person. Sometimes this behavior might be very subtle, while at other times it might be very explicit. Often, people who regress are unaware that they have done so, while bystanders may view such behavior as immature, selfish, childish, self-indulgent and inappropriate.
Examples of regressive behavior
Here are some examples of regressive behavior:
After his parents’ divorce, a 10-year-old boy returns to wetting the bed.
After the arrival of his little sister, an 8-year-old boy suddenly starts sucking his thumb, a habit he had given up.
A college student trying to adjust to his new life away from home returns to sleeping with a child’s stuffed animal.
After her boyfriend of 4 years breaks off the relationship, a girl curls up in a fetal position and rocks from side to side, refusing to leave the bed.
The anger a person displays when stuck in traffic is one of the most common instances of regression.
Most mild regressive behaviors are considered harmless and do not require therapy. However, people with complex or traumatic childhoods may not have matured adequately at all stages of growth and may act out in destructive ways.
Psychoanalytic origin of regression
Regression is closely related to Freud’s stages of psychosexual development. Sigmund Freud popularized the concept of defense mechanisms and proposed the theory of human development through psychosexual stages, naming them the oral, anal, and phallic stages of development. He asserted that our development and behavior as adults is determined by these developmental stages that were adopted during growth.
It was his daughter, Anna Freud, who classified regression as the most basic and important defense mechanism and asserted that the type of behavioral traits to which a person reverts could explain his or her fixation with the exact stage of development.
Thus, an example of fixation on the oral stage would be when a person who is under a lot of stress, smokes non-stop, overeats or verbally abuses others. If someone is stuck in the anal fixation phase, they may become exceptionally or even ruthlessly clean and tidy, or they could go in the opposite direction and become terribly sloppy and messy. A person with a phallic fixation may develop conversion hysteria and act on sexual impulses.
Conclusions
Although regression helps to reduce stress levels, a prolonged and habitual use of this defense mechanism can lead to problems of adjustment in daily life, as it can cause problems of adjustment in the person’s daily life.
That is why it is important for everyone to be aware of their behavior and find better and healthier options to deal with stress and anxiety.
