The term cleavage is not part of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ). It is an anglicism: a turn of English that is used in our language with reference to a segmentation , a break or a dissociation .
In the field of psychology , cleavage is a defense mechanism that is linked to emotional dissociation and involves separating the contradictory properties attributed to an object. While it is natural in childhood, cleavage in adulthood can appear as a manifestation of a psychosis if it is not treated appropriately.
Suppose that a person is in love with another for various qualities, although he also registers in them other qualities that he considers negative. The cleavage causes the first to separate both facets from the second, choosing to privilege what it takes as positive and maintaining the link for that reason, despite the bad.
In this context, the concept arises from the German term Spaltung and is linked to discordance and dissociation . These are notions that first appeared at the end of the 19th century in the research works of Wundt and Jean-Martin Charcot, who dedicated their lives to the study of topics such as hypnosis , mental automatism and multiple personality.
As mentioned above, and according to the theories of psychodynamic orientation (the field that brings together postmodern psychoanalytic thought), cleavage is a defense mechanism that helps us separate the contradictory qualities that coexist in an object, or also in the object. ego .
Psychology considers this mechanism somewhat archaic and primitive that allows us to view our emotional relationships favorably, to avoid the frustration that can be caused by feeling love for someone who is harmful or has negative attitudes. It is expected that in adulthood we will be able to accept the defects in others without having to deny them, while in the first years of life it is normal for us to act in an extremist way and idealize our elders.
In a healthy adult, the reality principle should not be compromised, which, together with the pleasure principle, governs the functioning of the mind, according to Freud. The reality principle modifies the other and is imposed to apply the conditions of the outside world to the search for satisfaction, so that, unlike what happens in childhood, this path is longer and more complex, respecting obstacles such as the privacy of others.
During the 20th century, psychoanalysis has given different nuances to the concept of cleavage; In its origins, Freud defined it mainly as the coexistence in the ego of two opposite attitudes: one that denied reality, and another that accepted it according to the principle explained above. At that time, the German term used to designate this concept was Ichspaltung , which can be translated as "ego split."
For sociology , cleavage is a division that occurs in a community for religious, ethnic, economic, ideological or other reasons. At the electoral level, this cleavage is seen in a marked split when it comes to choosing a political party or candidate.
The cleavage, in this case, can imply a fracture or a crack in society . This distance can be seen, for example, in the separation between the working class and the capitalists or landowners. Workers will vote according to their class interests, which tend to be antagonistic to the interests defended by those who have capital and land. The cleavage is not only electoral, but also manifests itself in ideology, in cultural expressions and in many other contexts and situations.