Paper presented at the International Symposium at the University of Cambridge, organised by the Centre of Childhood Relational Trauma and the Family Separation Clinic London.
In this paper, I present a sample of drawings made by parents and the child in which alienating behaviours are apparent. This research's significant and unique contribution is the introduction of the parent and child imago projective drawing (PCIPD). This innovative tool, designed to assist the author when working with children who have witnessed hostile marriage separation of their parents, offers a fresh approach to understanding the hyper-alignment of the child with one parent and the rejection of the other. The PCIPD is a powerful and intriguing tool that will surely pique the interest of our readers. The author uses analytical underpinnings from the collected works of C.G. Jung and other postmodern analytical writers to describe how the complexes between parents and their child get entangled, where both parents and the child show regression in the emotions they feel about their childhood and that of their child. The parents' unresolved emotions seem to be projected onto their child. Children’s responses to these projections also manifest in their drawings, presenting complexities in their connection to their parents.
Projective Drawings in assessing alienation of children in divorce and separation: an analytically informed intervention through evaluating parent’s and children’s drawings.