The Other, Role Theory, Key Elements on the Development of One-Self and Psychopathology

Abstract

We plan to analyze the psychological and sociological concepts of the other and the role theory. We would describe the roles in psychopathology differentiating between the identity of the role and the identity of oneself and its entailment with the other, with respect to the development of the individual and its difficulties in the acquisition of roles, leading to different clinical entities. These pathologies show phenomenological differences observed in clinical situations such as schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disease, personality disorders and in psychopathological manifestations of epilepsy. We analyze the difficulties schizophrenic patients have in assuming roles, as well as in the recognition of “the other”, depressive patients and their over identification of roles, the link to manic states, and a poor identity observed in patients with hysteria. Special considerations are made in the social interactions of epileptic patients with “the other” which takes the form of “being with”, and the dynamics established by epileptics in their social roles. These characteristics are also found in epileptic psychoses. When a psychotic state ends, and patients recover from a clear or lucid epileptic psychoses, they return to work recovering their social roles and interaction with others. In the case of cognitive impairment and organic dementia, there is a difficult adaptation due to this disability. Experiences lived under the psychotic episode are maintained, even reinforced and influence how they consider themselves and the others, in particular in terms of moral and religious ideas.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.