Unconscious Conflicts of Clients of Psychoanalytic Coaching with the Difficulties of Acquiring Professional Identity

The paper is devoted to the study of the difficulties in acquiring a professional identity in modern clients, specifically unconscious conflicts that complicate its formation. The paper hypothesizes that the difficulty in choosing a professional role and identifying oneself with it may be related to the oedipal and narcissistic conflict lines, with one of these lines being more pronounced. To achieve the goal of the study the authors considered the following concepts and aspects in the theoretical part of the work: identity and professional identity, the complexities of modern clients at the sociocultural, transgenerational and personal level, and the unconscious conflicts of the individual that hinder the acquisition of professional identity, associated with narcissistic and oedipal issues. In the empirical part of the study, individual work with four clients was conducted in the format of psychoanalytic coaching and psychoanalytic interpretation of the presented cases was performed. Based on the results of the research, conclusions were drawn that confirm the hypothesis. Both narcissistic and oedipal unconscious conflicts influence the difficulties of identity formation, and they can manifest themselves in the client's material gradually and cause different degrees of resistance. The narcissistic conflict line is characterized by fear of exposure, striving for the ideal image, perfectionism, the process of idealization and devaluation, narcissistic paralysis and constant comparison of oneself with others. The oedipal conflict line, in turn, is manifested by the desire to satisfy the parent and the abandonment of one's professional goals due to unconscious guilt.