Prof. Joseph Levine, M.D. is an emeritus associate professor in the Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University in Israel. Prof. Levine is a certified psychiatrist with clinical experience in controlled trials of adult psychiatric disorders and in psychotherapy. He was awarded a NRSAD independent investigator grant for the study of Creatine Monohydrate in psychiatric disorders -- mainly Schizophrenia. He resides and treats patients in Tel Aviv and all of central Israel.
Conversation 10: The internalization of characters
Internalization in general is related to learning and remembering processes. In psychology and sociology, internalization involves incorporating the attitudes, values, standards, and opinions of others into one's identity or sense of self.
Internalization means the individual's acceptance of a set of norms and values (set by others) which often occurs through socialization. In other words, an idea or an action that moves from outside us to inside us.
Some argue that the internalization process begins: 1] with learning something (attitudes or behavior),
followed by: 2] a process of understanding why the learning is meaningful and/or valuable,
and proceeding up to: 3] accepting learning as the learner's point of view or starting point.
Internalization helps a person define who he is and create his own identity and values.
Internalization is defined by the Oxford American Dictionary as "to make (attitudes or behavior) part of one's nature by unconscious learning or assimilation’.
Lev Vygotsky defined internalization as an internal reproduction of an external action. According to him there are three stages of internalization:
1] Reproducing or imitating an external, specific activity which gradually begins to act internally.
2] An interpersonal process [which is complex and includes a series of activities and reactions] that begins and becomes an internal intrapersonal process.
3] a long series of developmental events that contribute to the transformation of the interpersonal process into a distinctly intrapersonal process.
We will note here that there are also those who distinguish between internalizing knowledge of what [what things are, what their essence is, etc.], and knowledge of how [how things are done, how to act, etc.]
Within the concept of internalization we will specifically discuss the internalization of significant figures.
By significant characters we imply a certain person or a certain group of people who have a significant influence on the set of attitudes, emotional expressions, and behavior of the person who internalized these characters.
The question arises, what is the mechanism of internalizing these characters? That is, how is the significant internalization of the characters carried out and what stages does it undergo.