女性における対人恐怖心性 : 学校をめぐる離脱と参入の試練

Abstract

本稿では、女性の対人恐怖症状や対人恐怖心性について、女子校における筆者自身の臨床実践を基に、女性の成長過程を考える上で参考になると思われる童話を引用して、思春期･青年期における女性の成長過程に関して、それと密接に関わる母親の中年期における問題を交えて考察をする｡

We describe social phobia in women, which prevents women from developing both "passive and cooperative" and "active and assertive" behaviors. We describe cases of psychotherapeutic practice in all-female schools, where the subjects were unable to assert themselves because they tended to sympathize with others. They experience particular difficulties when they enter school and when they graduate from school. Moving from a very protective world to a new grown-up one is difficult for them. To explain these difficulties, we refer to "The Goose Girl, " which is one of Grimm's fairy tales. In this tale a very humble princess who hated to assert herself with her maid was turned into a goose girl. But she never forgot that she was really a princess. Because she had endured such a tribulation, she eventually developed an ability to assert herself appropriately, and she was able to marry a prince. This story suggests how a woman can develop self-awareness and self-assertion.