The Chemistry of Interpersonal Attraction: Developing further Bion's concept of "valency"
著者
Med Hafsi
(Meddo hafushi)
社会学部
版
publisher
出版地
奈良
出版者
奈良大学
上位タイトル
奈良大学紀要
(Memoirs of the Nara University).
Vol.34号,
(2006.
03)
,p.87-
112
識別番号
ISSN
03892204
抄録
The present is an attempt to further develop Bion's (1961) concept of "valency", a term the latter borrowed from chemistry. First, the author extended the concept to include not only, as Bion believed, the person's readiness to combine with other members to contribute to the formation of the basic assumption group, but also the person's way to relate and react to his peers in general. Second, he provides a detailed description of the main characteristics of the four types of valency (fight, dependency, flight, and pairing). Then, developing further Bion's analogy between man and atom, he discussed the relationship between these types of valency, proposing thus a set of hypotheses which shed a new light on the "chemistry" of interpersonal relationship and attraction. Third, filling the gap left by Bion, the author discussed the psychogenesis of valency, tracing it back to early psychotic positions (paranoid-schizoid and depressive) and object relations described by Melanie Klein (1946). Finally, the author postulated a causal relationship between valency and psychopathology, proposing a new concept, namely the "minus valency" (-V). This concept corresponds to a mental state where valency functions in reverse. That is, instead of bounding the subject to his peers, -V does the opposit; it hinders, destroys and prevent the establishment of interpersonal relationships. According to the author each valency type has a minus counterpart. Thus, there are four possible -V types (minus fight, minus dependency, minus flight and minus pairing) and each one is associated with a number of mental and psychosomatic diseases, especially personality diseases. This suggests thus that the concept of -V provides the psycho-analytically oriented psychotherapist working with personality disorders with a "starting point", namely the client's -V, and a goal to achieve, that is, the restoration of the client's valency, or his/her ability to establish "healthy" and lasting relationships with others.
