著者

須藤 春佳 Haruka SUDO

雑誌

神戸女学院大学論集 = KOBE COLLEGE STUDIES

巻号頁・発行日

vol.58, no.2, pp.87-102, 2011-12-20

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In this thesis, we discuss two aspects of close friendship. First, the positive aspects- in other words, the light of friendship. Second, we focus on the problems and difficulties of friendship- that is, the shadow of friendship- and discuss the reason why such problems occur. It seems that problems with friendship are more complicated for girls than for boys, so we discuss friendships among girls in a later part of the theses. At the same time, we examine gender differences in friendship. Sullivan(1953) pointed out the positive aspects of close friendships. According to him, around the time of pre-adolescence, close friendships develop between two children of the same sex and age; Sullivan called this "chum-ship." He explained that such close friendships heal any distortion within the child's former development and promote the child's psychological development. Many researchers suggest that an individual's experience of chum-ship is associated with subsequent positive aspects of psychological adjustment. There are a number of reasons why close friendships become important at this time. First, they play a role of psychological protection during a time of transition, Second, a close friend can act as a model or mirror for the child- someone the child can identify with. Finally , a close friends can act as a mediator between the child's internal and external words. To ciscuss the shadow aspects of close friendship, we focused on a number of phenomena, namely bullying school refusal, and the occurrence of traunatic encounters between two girls. We discuss how bullying occurs according to peer pressure, which demands sameness within peer groups. Next, we introduce cases in which girls have refused to go to school because of trouble among friends, and we examine the background problems in these cases. Finally, we discuss traumatic encounters between two girls who were previously friends, in referece to the mirror stage theory(Lacan,1949). In such cases, the function of mirroring in the friendship is considered to have worked negatively.