Abstract
The application of psychoanalytic rules to the family drawing permits an interpretation in depth which leads to the understanding of conflicts in the child's mind.
In this work, the author has limited himself more particularly to the study of the projection of forbidden tendencies to an animal symbol, as this projection enables the subject to gratify 'by proxy' his instincts without feelings of anguish or without being punished.
This is surely a theory and it will be necessary, in each case, to check it by means of an extensive clinical and projective analysis. It was possible, however, to support this theory with several arguments.
The first is that the familiar animal which is supposed to assume the forbidden tendency is emphasized by the place it occupies, the care with which it is drawn and the comment describing its action. Sometimes even, it has human features which indicate its intimate collusion with the subject.
Secondly, in such a case, the subject himself is absent from the drawing; he has not depicted himself. One is led to wonder under what other person's features he appears and when the super-added animal is set out, it may be assumed that it is representing the subject in the drawing.
The third argument is inferred from identification. It is quite obvious that, when the subject claims to be identified with the animal, no doubt is possible. However, more often than not, as we have seen, the child evades the question, and when he is invited to identify himself, he is either the father or he is someone absent.
This is quite understandable, as we have seen that the person assuming the forbidden action is also the one who will have to accept punishment. Therefore, in one case, the adder is chased away; in other cases, the aggressor animal is killed.
In all those cases, it will be necessary to establish identification in an indirect manner, outside of the statements of the child. Identification will be based in the first place on the signs of emphasis given to the animal shown, as we have said; secondly, on the convergence of indices which are brought out by the other tests or psychodramas, as has been illustrated in those observations.