RESEARCH ARTICLE


Trauma and the Father Image: Fantasies and Complexes in the Rorschach Test



Settineri Salvatore1, Lo Presti Eleonora2, Liotta Marco3, Mento Carmela*, 4
1 Clinical Psychology, Department of Human and Social Science, University of Messina, Italy
2 University of Messina, Italy
3 Psychological Sciences, University of Messina, Italy
4 Clinical Psychology, Department of Neurosciences, University of Messina, Italy


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Creative Commons License
© 2013 Salvatore et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the University of Messina, Consolare Valeria str, 1, 98100 Messina, Italy; Tel: +390902212978; Fax: +39090695136; E-mail: cmento@unime.it


Abstract

In the interpretation of the Rorschach test, the features of the table IV inkblot evoke a dimension of authority, morals and related emotions. Interestingly, the father figure is related to ego development and also guides towards maturity via more evolved emotions such as feelings of shame and guilt. In some cases these feelings are found to be lacking in adults experiencing depression. The aim of this work is to analyze the relationship between the representational world in relation to the father figure and depressive mood disorders. The group of subjects is composed of 25 patients who had a psychiatric diagnosis of “Depressive episode”. The presence of specific phenomena brings out the complexes, the uneasy and conflictual relationship with the father figure submerged in the unconscious thus emerges. Shock is thereby manifested in relation to the black in which the large, dark, and blurred stimulus is perceived as sinister, threatening and dangerous. The trauma emerges in the result of a relationship with a father who has not allowed the child to manage similarities and differences. From the nature of the answers of the Rorschach protocols, it emerges that the symbolic abilities of subjects are not fully developed or have been attacked by an early trauma.

Keywords: Father image, Psychopathology, Rorschach test, Trauma.