# Autoplastic adaptation

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'''Autoplastic adaptation''' (from the [Greek](/source/Ancient_Greek) word auto) is a form of [adaptation](/source/adaptation) where the subject attempts to change itself when faced with a difficult situation.

The concept of autoplastic adaptation was developed by [Sigmund Freud](/source/Sigmund_Freud), [Sándor Ferenczi](/source/S%C3%A1ndor_Ferenczi), and [Franz Alexander](/source/Franz_Alexander). They proposed that when an individual was presented with a stressful situation, he could react in one of two ways:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sack |first=Harald |date=2017-06-22 |title=Franz Alexander and the Foundation of Psychosomatic Medicine {{!}} SciHi Blog |url=http://scihi.org/franz-alexander-psychosomatic-medicine/ |access-date=2024-08-21 |language=en-US}}</ref> 
* Autoplastic adaptation: The subject tries to change himself, i.e. the internal environment.
* [Alloplastic adaptation](/source/Alloplastic_adaptation): The subject tries to change the situation, i.e. the external environment.

==Autoplasticity, hysteria and evolution==

'[Hysterical](/source/Hysteria) individuals appear to be turned inward. Their symptoms, instead of presenting actions directed outward (alloplastic activities), are mere internal innervations (autoplastic activities)'.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|title=The psychoanalytic theory of neurosis|last1=Fenichel|first1=Otto|date=1996|publisher=Norton|last2=Rangell|first2=Leo|isbn=0393038904|edition=50th anniversary|location=New York|pages=217|oclc=32927192}}</ref>

[Freud](/source/Freud), with 'his single-minded [Lamarckianism](/source/Lamarckism)', speculated that behind 'Lamarck's idea of "need"' was the 'power of unconscious ideas over one's own body, of which we see remnants in hysteria, in short, "the omnipotence of thought"'.<ref>Peter Gay, ''Freud: A Life for Our Time'' (London 1989)p. 368 and p. 647</ref>

As a result, among his immediate followers, 'Insight into this regressive nature of the phenomenon of [conversion](/source/Conversion_disorder) may be taken as a starting-point for speculation about the archaic origin of the capacity for autoplastic conversion...according to which [evolution](/source/evolution) took place through the autoplastic adaptation of the body to the demands of the environment'.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The psychoanalytic theory of neurosis|last1=Fenichel|first1=Otto|date=1996|publisher=Norton|last2=Rangell|first2=Leo|isbn=0393038904|edition=50th anniversary|location=New York|pages=229|oclc=32927192}}</ref>

==Cross-cultural autoplasticity==

'Cross-cultural helpers have debated what has been called the autoplastic/alloplastic dilemma: how much should clients be encouraged to adapt to a given situation and how much...to change? Most Western helping modalities have a strong autoplastic bias; clients are encouraged to abandon traditional beliefs...to fit into a dominant society's mainstream'.<ref>George Henderson et al, ''A Practitioner's Guide tp Understanding Indigenous and Foreign Cultures'' 92006) p. 57</ref>

The analytic relationship is sometimes seen in similar terms: 'the two practitioners in treatment are engaged in an unending struggle between changing the other and effecting internal change..."autoplastic" and "alloplastic"'.<ref>[http://www.enotes.com/psychoanalysis-encyclopedia/autoplastic Steven Wainrib, "Autoplastic"]</ref>

==See also==
* [Atlas personality](/source/Atlas_personality)
* [Bovarysme](/source/Bovarysme)
* [Internalized oppression](/source/Internalized_oppression)
* [Occupational psychosis](/source/Occupational_psychosis)
* [Victim soul](/source/Victim_soul)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=nkP-_3S4yJ0C&dq=%22Autoplastic+adaptation%22&pg=PA64 "Psychiatry and the dilemmas of crime" by Seymour L. Halleck, page 64]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=NkSTx5oUfqgC&dq=%22Autoplastic+adaptation%22&pg=PA14 "Mediated learning experience (MLE)" by Reuven Feuerstein, Pnina S. Klein, Abraham J. Tannenbaum, page 14]
*[https://doi.org/10.1023%2FA%3A1022522031707 "Ferenczi's Trauma Theory" by Jay B. Frankel]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=pAgK_PyRlugC&dq=%22Autoplastic+adaptation%22&pg=PA158 "Digital creativity" by Colin Beardon, Lone Malmborg, page 58]
*[http://www.psychresidentonline.com/Psychodynamic%20Formulation.html PsychResidentOnline.com: Psychodynamic Theory Notes]
*[https://www.psychology-lexicon.com/cms/glossary/glossary-a/autoplastic-adaptation.html Psychology Glossary]

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Category:Human behavior

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