The evaluation of the identitiy representations of voluntarily childless women with projective tests

The aim of this study is to investigate the mental processes of women who have chosen childlessness voluntarily. The results of the analyses aimed to obtain information about the representations of the lack of mother's holding function, difficulty in identifications and the presence of phallic representations. The data for this study has been collected from a sample of 11 single women who haven't been psychiatrically diagnosed and have chosen to remain childless. The study comprised respectively of an interview questionnaire, a pyschoanalytically oriented clinical interview, the Rorschach Test and the Thematic Apperception Test. The projective test results were analyzed according to the French School of the Projective Methods through content analysis. The findings of the study show the unconscious responses of the participants to projective tests and the conscious responses are congruent. The participants have described negative experiences in their family relations. Mothers were described in two groups, as either dominant or fragile. The projective tests show the disturbing quality of the relationship with the mother to be in the foreground and diffuculty of separation. The holding quality of the unconscious image of the mother was found to be absent. The identification was found to be difficult due to the negative unconscious image of the mother. Anxiety about the sexualized body represantations was found. Phallic representations were found to be heavily invested in. Projective tests responses show depressive affect.