THE PHENOMENON OF RESENTMENT IN THE FAMILY SYSTEM (BLOOD RESENTMENT)

Abstract

The article highlights the features of the resentment as an important component of the emotional and sensual sphere of the personality. Resentment is a person's feeling that arises in response to unjustly inflicted grievances on the part of another person. It is associated with a feeling of indignation at the offender and with the feeling of the self-pity. It belongs to people with difficult character and to some extent destructive, since its unresponsiveness affects the mental and somatic states of a person. At the same time, the experience of resentment is an integral part of the separation process and it instructs on sensitivity and emotionality of the individual. These aspects highlight the importance of this feeling in a person's life. Resentment can arise at the level of the individual subsystem and in the family system (blood resentment). It has been determined that a blood resentment arises in relations with relatives, but because of a number of reasons it cannot be experienced by a person independently and is passed on to relatives in the process of interaction. It is substantiated that blood resentment can be part of transgenerational transmission (a non-genetic form that conveys some information/ experience from one family member to another). Most often, information about a situation that a person considers traumatic, unacceptable, but extremely important for himself or herself is unconsciously transmitted. The transmission of resentment within the family system is determined by a number of factors: inability to meet the actual need; prohibition of anger and demonstration of aggression in the family system; the presence of family myths "We are a friendly family", "We are an ideal family"; lack of clear boundaries. Such peculiarities of the functioning of the family cause the absence of resentment at the level of the individual, the reinforcement of this feeling by the formation of the "image of the enemy" in consciousness and the transfer of this introject to other members of the family system.