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Abstract
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Introduction/objectives As far as teenagers are concerned, the suicidal dynamic has been broadly tackled by Researchers (Arrfa, 1982; Jeammet and Birot, 1994; Diwo, 1998; Diwo et al., 2004; Silberg and Armstrong, 2010; de Kernier, 2009, 2012, 2015). Conversely, studies on children are much set aside (Pfeffer et al., 1979; Guillon et al., 1987; Petot, 2012). In this paper, we will develop the case study of 12-year-old Margaret (non-pubescent), who has tried to end her life several times after her father's suicide 6 years before.
METHOD We chose an exploratory single case study related to the psychodynamic two months psychotherapy during the child's hospitalization. Originality of our approach is related to the fact that we combined clinical interview with a multifocal projective approach using several tools to test our theoretical hypothesis of melancholic identification of the child to her death father We used the tales' Test (Royer, 1978; de Tychey, 2010), the Rorschach Test as interpreted by Parisian School (Chabert, 1987; de Tychey, 2012), and the three trees drawing test (Fromage, 2011). Alongside with that, the psychotherapeutic follow-up has been completed with a double-blinded assessment by two other different clinical psychologists.
RESULTS The projective clinical data produced by the fairytales' Test and the Rorschach Test confirm our hypothesis: Marguerite's melancholic identification stems from the negative aspect of the dead lost object. Repeated dead human and animal contents were projected on Rorschach cardsand showed the traumatic impact of father suicide on the child. On the other side, child's identification to death baby animals was very impressive in the tales' test. Therefore, her suicidal dynamic is closed to the one implemented by so many teenagers (Chabert, 2003; de Kernier, 2015).
CONCLUSION The drawing tests used while counselling Marguerite enable us to follow the evolution of her grieving process. She moves forward from an association of denial and identification to the lost father, to a progressive work resulting in the detachment of the lost object. Further researches are suggested, both to prove the importance of melancholic identification in children' suicide attempts and to prevent such an issue. © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS
Language: en |