The benchmark for the formation of a psychologist’s personality is the awareness of psychological defences

Abstract

The article highlights one of the central trajectories of the ontogeny of a professional psychologists personality, which in its developmental functioning runs from the action of the protective mechanisms of the psyche at the initial stage of their professional training to the establishment of a number of psychological defences as clearly reflected mental tendencies of progress at the highest levels of their competence maturity. It is proved that the multi-level system of psychological defences of a psychologist is an integral part of his professional traits and qualities as a personality, which in its self-improvement rises from the simplest protective forms of mental activity to the most complex, more conscious constructs and psychological coping, which testifies to the achievement of both higher levels of professional skills and new psycho-spiritual horizons of personal development. In this analytical context, the essential invariant content of competence, structural, systemic and prognostic models of the formation of important traits of a psychologists personality in terms of effective psychological assistance to a client is considered. The functional difference between the defence mechanisms of the psyche and psychological defences, which, having a comparable structural organisation, have a constructive conscious influence in the daily activity of a psychologist and ensure personal maturity and professional excellence, is substantiated. In accordance with the principles, regularities and norms of A. Furmans cyclic-action approach, four levels of psychological defences of a personality and a psychologist are substantiated in the form of a thought diagram, which in complementarity ensures their adaptation/adaptability to professional activity: 1) biopsychic – a genetically determined (instinctive) way of responding to adverse influences; 2) psychophysical – designed to stabilise the inner world of a person in a situation of excessive emotional stress, eliminate internal discomfort with the help of natural resources of the psyche;    3) psychosocial – a way of adaptively conflict-free interaction of an individual with the environment, in which he/she uses one of the previously developed options for personal protection; 4) self-personal – self-reflection on the choice of the optimal set of defence mechanisms and ways of overcoming them (coping). The author suggests that the development of higher levels of psychological defences is possible only when a psychologist, overcoming the difficult path of individual and professional development, has reached the heights of professional competence, and their conscious defences have become an integral part of their personality as a subsystem of stable traits and qualities.