FROM TRAUMA TO SELF-ACCEPTANCE: THE EVOLUTION OF THE BODILY SELF IN THE POSTOPERATIVE EXPERIENCE OF FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION

This article examines the postoperative experience of facial reconstruction as a crisis of corporeal self-identification, accompanied by profound shifts in the structure of the bodily self, the system of emotional regulation, and the overall architectonics of psychological well-being.Within the phenomenology of the bodily self, the article accentuates the tension between body schema, body image, and the experience of the "lived body," which is intensified under the influence of trauma, radical alteration of appearance, and a stigmatizing social context that disrupts the habitual transparency of the "living" body.The salutogenic approach enables description of how personal resources, sense of coherence, and locus of control modulate the transition from maladaptation to gradual acceptance of the altered face, reconsolidation of body image, and formation of a new corporeal self-identification capable of accommodating the experience of trauma without destruction of the integrity of the self.It is demonstrated that operatory thinking and alexithymia complicate the symbolization of traumatic experience, promote somatization of affect and formation of psychosomatic symptomatology, limiting the possibilities of flexible emotional regulation and deepening the rupture between the subjective sense of self and the reflected image in the gaze of the Other.The staged dynamics of adaptation are described: from shock, disorganization, and the phenomenon of "I do not recognize myself" through "two-week blues," ambivalence regarding surgical outcome, and conflict between old and new body image, to reconsolidation of the bodily self and potential post-traumatic growth, mediated by enhancement of psychological wellbeing, expansion of the repertoire of coping strategies, and transformation of the system of meanings.Emphasis is placed on the role of the intersubjective dimension (the gaze of the Other, stigmatization, the experience of "social death," objectification of the body, internalization of stigma) in intensifying or, conversely, attenuating the vulnerability of the bodily self and maintaining chronic psychosomatic symptomatology, particularly body dysphoria, flashbacks, and body memory of trauma.The necessity of psychotherapeutic interventions is substantiated that combine