| This study maps the constructs of regression to differentiate adaptive and maladaptive regression, delineate differentiating criteria for operationalizing and classifying regressive phenomena, and provide a linguistic framework for discussion and critique of previous theoretical and empirical studies of regression, and reviews the literature on regression and sublimation in classical libido theory and ego psychology. The place of transitional objects and play in the concept of regression in the service of the ego and creativity are reviewed. These theoretical constructs are reformulated using Schafer's action language model of psychoanalysis. Five criteria are proposed to distinguish adaptive and maladaptive regression along a continuum. The implications of this reformulation are examined for individual development, creativity, and psychopathology; for Marcuse's and Norman Brown's utopian visions of a regressively transformed society modelled after the mythical figures of Orpheus, Narcissus, and Dionysus; for actual groups and organizations; and for the relationships between the individual as hero or artist, and society.;Mapping of the constructs of regression is illustrated by an analysis of eleven television commercials which elicit regression. Each commercial is analyzed as to the actions and modes of action portrayed by the commercial, and responses in the viewer. To assess the generalizability of this N = 1 data, the Television Commercial Rating Questionnaire, a semantic differential scale, was designed; 29 psychology graduate students use it to rate each commercial. The action language methodology serves to qualitatively examine the commercials; but due to instrumentation and procedural problems, and subject variables, the questionnaire data provides limited evidence for the generalizability of the qualitative data.;The study concludes that regression may be viewed paradoxically as actions within a context and as a regressive context. In adaptively suspending and reconstituting disbelief in illusion, one remembers the past and bridges past, present, and future, in maladaptive regression, one returns to and repeats the past. |
