Authors:

Abstract

[The Paternal and Maternal Symbolic Dimensions in Parental Images]

The parental relation is an important determinant in the formation of the child’s future object relations. In addition to individual factors these relations are principally mediated through the symbolic dimension with which the parents are invested in a given culture. The purpose of our research is to elicit to what degree parental images, especially in adults, can be viewed as a function of the maternal and paternal symbolic dimension. In a group of 117 adult subjects, the parental images were tested on both a realistic and 'ideal' parent or wish-fulfilment level. The Semantic Differential Parental (S.D.P.), a modification of the semantic differential was employed. In this different aspects of both symbolic dimensions are reflected on a unipolar rating scale. Our results demonstrate that the maternal image on a wish-fulfilment level, and to a lesser degree on a realistic level is characterized by the maternal symbol dimension. Paternal images, on the contrary, are equally saturated with both maternal and paternal dimensions. That is to say, both symbolic dimensions achieve integration within the paternal image. Age, sex and intellectual background of the respondents account for rather important differences in images on both a realistic and ideal parent level. Finally parental images – on the ideal parent level – are discriminated through both symbolic dimensions. On the realistic level, parental images appear to be equally saturated in the paternal dimension, whereas the maternal dimension affords discrimination between the images.