A gramática da quietude: um estudo sobre hábito e confiança na formação da identidade

Abstract

This work aims to investigate the functions of habit and trust in the constitution of identity. Even tough it is inspired by studies that stress the importance of trust to the constitution of society and its condition in the contemporary socio-cultural context, the discussion focuses basically on the domain of the child development. Noticing the importance of trust for the psychoanalytical school of object relations, the analysis of this concept is mainly examined in the work of D. W. Winnicott. Based on the fact that trust plays a central role in the metapsychological assumptions of this author, which contrasts with a limited theoretical exploration of its multiple meanings, the study proposes to discriminate two moments in its construction: the genesis and the reproduction of trust. The study of habit constitutes a preliminary step for the examination of trust. The analysis of the concept of habit is accomplished through the work of sociologists and philosophers, and intends to reveal the corporeal features and the importance of the regular and reliable interactions with the environment for the genesis of trust. The common presuppositions and the converging elements of different theories of habit are pointed, showing how they tend to emphasize its embodied bases and avoid its description as repetition and automatism. By the provision of security through the anticipation of the consequences of action, habit contributes to the process of flexible adaptation and plays a central role in the construction of trust. Next, the study focuses on the mechanisms of the reproduction of trust. Under the new functional configurations of the environment that follow the development of the child . the reduction of security, the increase of autonomy and freedom of risk taking, the reproduction of trust reflects the incidence of the aggressive-creative actions in the transitional space. In addition to the analysis of the work of psychoanalysts that share with Winnicott some central elements of his theory, the investigation of trust is improved by the contributions provided by recent findings in the domain of developmental psychology. This work also examines three features of infant development described by Winnicott as related to trust: the capacity to be alone, to non-integration and the propensity for gift giving.