Study of the Association of Insecure Attachment With the Dehumanization and Self-Dehumanization of Patients Hospitalized With Psychotic Disorder and Organic Disease

Dimitra Lekka; Clive Richardson; Anna Madoglou; Konstantina Orlandou; Vasileia Arachoviti; Vassia I Karamanoli; Aikaterini Roubi; Constantinos Togas; Athanasios Tsaraklis; Anastasios Stalikas

doi:10.7759/cureus.21445

Study of the Association of Insecure Attachment With the Dehumanization and Self-Dehumanization of Patients Hospitalized With Psychotic Disorder and Organic Disease

Cureus. 2022 Jan 20;14(1):e21445. doi: 10.7759/cureus.21445. eCollection 2022 Jan.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Thoracic Diseases General Hospital Sotiria, Athens, GRC.
² Department of Economic and Regional Development, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, GRC.
³ Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, GRC.
⁴ Psychology, Hellenic Military Academy, Athens, GRC.
⁵ Psychology, Independent Researcher, Megalopolis, GRC.
⁶ Department of Dermatology, Thoracic Diseases General Hospital Sotiria, Athens, GRC.

Abstract

Introduction Dehumanization is the phenomenon that concerns the non-attribution of humanness to other human beings and has two dimensions, animalistic and mechanistic. The aim of the present study is to study dehumanization and self-dehumanization in patients with psychosis and organic disease. Methods The sample consisted of 200 people who were hospitalized in Athens, Greece, in 2017. Participants were asked to answer the dehumanization questionnaire, the mechanistic self-dehumanization scale, the human nature and human uniqueness characteristics questionnaire, and the adult attachment questionnaire. Results It was found that patients with organic disease and patients with psychosis do not perform mechanistic and animalistic dehumanization of themselves. Still, it seems that insecure attachment (anxiety and obsession) contributes positively to their mechanistic dehumanization and negatively to their mechanistic self-dehumanization. From the insecure attachment, only the dimensions of stress and obsession affect the mechanistic dehumanization. Conclusions It is important to take measures to train specialists in the hospital so that they can establish a safe therapeutic relationship with the patient so that patients will not resort to dehumanization and self-dehumanization as a defense against the stress of hospitalization.

Keywords: dehumanization; insecure attachment; organic disease; psychotic disorder; self-dehumanization.