Distancing (psychology)
Encyclopedia
Distancing is a concept arising from the work of developmental psychologists Heinz Werner
and Bernard Kaplan. Distancing describes the process by which psychologists help a person establish their own individuality through understanding their separateness from everything around them. This understanding of one's identity is considered an essential phase in coming to terms with symbols, which in turn forms the foundation for full cognition and language.
Werner and Kaplan's work was later expanded by the pioneer in deaf-blind patient therapy, Dr. Jan Van Dijk
, and later refined by the work of Dr. Susan Bruce. Primarily of use in working with deaf-blind patients, distancing gradually leads the subject through a course of physical interactions which encourage the patients to respond.
At first, responses may be simple repetitions of pleasurable acts, but eventually events that take place in the present tense are replaced in the subject's mind with more complicated concepts, such as desires, requests, or other expressions which reflect symbolic cognition and understanding of past events.
As the subject progresses through these stages, he is eventually able to move from communicating his desires simply (as in early childhood) to more complicated treatment of symbols in communication. Once the communication barrier is removed, more conventional therapies and educational methodologies are then possible.
Heinz Werner (Psychologist)
Heinz Werner was an Austrian developmental psychologist. His orthogenic principle has been an influential approach to the concept of development...
and Bernard Kaplan. Distancing describes the process by which psychologists help a person establish their own individuality through understanding their separateness from everything around them. This understanding of one's identity is considered an essential phase in coming to terms with symbols, which in turn forms the foundation for full cognition and language.
Werner and Kaplan's work was later expanded by the pioneer in deaf-blind patient therapy, Dr. Jan Van Dijk
Jan van Dijk
Jan A.G.M. van Dijk is a professor of sociology and communication science at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. He teaches and investigates the sociology of the information society and the social aspects of the new media...
, and later refined by the work of Dr. Susan Bruce. Primarily of use in working with deaf-blind patients, distancing gradually leads the subject through a course of physical interactions which encourage the patients to respond.
At first, responses may be simple repetitions of pleasurable acts, but eventually events that take place in the present tense are replaced in the subject's mind with more complicated concepts, such as desires, requests, or other expressions which reflect symbolic cognition and understanding of past events.
As the subject progresses through these stages, he is eventually able to move from communicating his desires simply (as in early childhood) to more complicated treatment of symbols in communication. Once the communication barrier is removed, more conventional therapies and educational methodologies are then possible.