Citation

Van Thiel M, Mantadakis E, Vekemans M, Gillot de Vries F. J. Gynecol. Obstet. Biol. Reprod. (Paris) 1990; 19(7): 823-828.

Vernacular Title

Etude, par entretiens et tests projectifs, du psychisme de patient(e)s ayant

Affiliation

Service de Psychologie du Développement, Faculté des Sciences Psychologiques et Pédagogiques, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgique.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, Elsevier Masson)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2277164

Abstract

A Thematic Aperception Test was used with 13 male and 16 female patients who were requesting A.I.D. The following main psychological reactions were found in women: anxiety and depression (fear of rejection by their family and friends; lowering the image of the husband--the donor being considered as a rival), aggression (the narcissistic woman "demands" A.I.D.; the donor is esteemed highly); mother is protective ("true" paternity comes through love of the child and the need to forget the donor). They found, in men: an inability to abandon fertility as lost (with denial of sterility); ambivalence, castration anxiety and a feeling of being excluded from the mother-child symbiosis with later acceptance of loss of fertility and (sometimes excessively) identification with the "mother". Most subjects studied were not intending telling the child about his true origin; because disclosure would be tantamount to transgressing twice over the laws of paternity and the rules against Oedipus behaviour. There is often a great difference between the ways the partners view the matter and inter-relate. We strongly recommend that psychological advice should be taken before treatment with A.I.D. is started.

Language: fr