Personality's experience of its own destructiveness

Background. The concept of personality destructiveness describes the variety of widespread destructive and self-destructive phenomena in human life. The study of such phenomena caters to the needs of psychological counselling and psychotherapy, cause, in the long term, it can contribute to the prevention of the negative consequences of destruction for personality and others. In addition, such a study can be a way of rethinking the unambiguously negative interpretations of human destructiveness, since, according to many psychologists and philosophers of the 20th-century, destruction is associated with positive changes, development and “coming into being”.

Objective. The purpose of this study is to explore the psychological characteristics of a personality's experience of its own destructiveness.

Methods. A semi-structured interview and a survey with application of psychodiagnostic techniques (The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire by R.B. Cattell and the I-Structural Test of G. Ammon) were used as research methods.

Sample. The sample consisted of 30 people aged 18 to 45, residents of St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and other cities of the Russian Federation.

Results. Significant components of a personality's experience of typical situations connected with destructive manifestations were identified, which differ depending on the direction of destruction to oneself, to another person or to material objects. The experience of self-destructiveness is characterized by the predominance of mental assessments of the situation, negative emotions and unambiguously negative meanings, while destructiveness toward another corresponds to a more ambivalent emotional experience and ambiguous interpretation. The destruction of material objects is often accompanied by positive emotions and active behavior, the attributing a neutral meaning to the destruction. A connection between the measure of destructiveness as a personality trait and emotional instability, low sensitivity, nonconformism and the emotional content of experiencing destructiveness was found.

Conclusion. The research data indicate the ambiguity and multi-vector nature of the phenomenon of destructiveness, its connection with both negative and positive emotions (joy, interest), constructive meanings (protecting the boundaries of the Self, defending independence) and positive life changes in the personality’s representation.

Practical application of the results. Data on the personality's experience of its own destructiveness, its semantic content, meaning in a life context, as well as its connection with the structure of personality, are valuable for the practice of psychological counseling and psychotherapy and correspond to a wide range of client requests.

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