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A 10-Year-Old Girl’s Overcoming the Negative Mother Complex and Its Relationship to Ego Development

  • Journal of Symbols & Sandplay Therapy
  • Abbr : JSST
  • 2017, 8(1), pp.1-32
  • Publisher : Korean Society for Sandplay Therapy
  • Research Area : Social Science > Psychological Science > Counseling Psychology / Psychotherapy

Mee-Ra Kowen 1

1한국임상모래놀이치료

Candidate

ABSTRACT

This case study is of the sandplay process of a young girl whose ego development was delayed predominantly, it seems, because of negative mother archetypal energy expressed by the personal mother. The client is an elementary school-aged girl caught in the negative mother archetype, particularly in its devouring quality which was a manifestation of the mother’s over-protectiveness; thus development of ego consciousness was impeded, as was a balanced relationship between ego and Self. The mother suffered from severe chronic depression and anxiety, and the father from panic disorder. As sandplay therapy progressed, client gradually began to engage in her everyday outer life and function normally, and the mother increasingly became less overprotective and more containing and accepting. As is evidenced in this case, sandplay therapy provided an environment which enabled the reconstitution of client's problematic primal relationship, constellation of the Self so that she developed a sense of self-worth and competency, and the reconstruction of her damaged ego-Self axis.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.