Citation

Dubouis-Bonnefond JC, Galle-Tessonneau JR. Psychol Med (Paris) 1982; 14(8): 1187-1189.

Vernacular Title

Incidences psychopathologiques de l'I.V.G. chez le pere appele au service

Copyright

(Copyright © 1982, S. P. E. I. éditeur)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12268237

Abstract

This work examines the symptomatology of 4 young men recently drafted into military service in France who had negative reactions to their partner's abortions. The men ranged in age from 19-21 years. In all cases there was frank depression, accompanied or not by activity illegal in the eyes of the military (unauthorized leave) or of the common law (theft, use of drugs). The abortion was either a pretext for a rapid decompensation of a pathological personality, or it occasioned a crisis in personalities previously relatively well adapted despite immaturity, psychopathology, or weakness. The organization of the couples tended to be recent, unstable, precarious, and without a promising future either affectively or socioeconomically. Either the woman decided to seek an abortion herself and presented the father with an accomplished fact, or the couple tacitly made a joint decision to seek an abortion, in which case the subsequent illegal activity of the father tended to be more serious. Each of the men had conflictive family relationships with their fathers especially perceived as hostile and rejecting. All of the men had attempted suicide or had considered it. Induction into the army has traditionally been seen as a rite of passage to adult life, but in some cases the emotional distances it causes and the socioeconomic difficulties it aggravates prevent the man from undertaking the responsibilities of fatherhood. In these cases it is as if social maturity can be acquired only at the expense of fatherhood; the 2 states cannot coexist. Frustration and sacrifice of fatherhood nevertheless may occasion loss of the social maturity stemming from military service. The abortion is followed by guilt, psychic suffering, and behavioral problems leading to expulsion from the military. On the symbolic level the man does not become either man or father. Another point is that depression, anxiety, and guilt are an affective expression of the idea of death; the embryo is thought of as an infant when in fact it is only potentially an infant. On the unconscious level the father may identify with the aborted fetus in the belief that his own parents may have wanted to destroy him. The abortion may also contain a suicidal element to the extent that the fetus represents a prolongation of the parent. The anxiety and guilt of the father find expression also in auto- and heteroaggressive acts. Through a mechanism of projection, responsibility of the army is substituted for that of the individual.

Language: fr