The Personality of Juvenile Offenders: Psychodynamic Aspects in Children’s Apperception Test – Human Figures

Abstract

Adolescence and preadolescence can be understood by identifying impulses and defense mechanisms, as well as identification processes involved in the construction of identity. Many issues faced by youngsters derive from a devaluation of identification images: those assigned by the adolescent himself, and those offered by the family and the society. This study presents an interpretation schedule that allows the assessment of such features by means of a quantitative assessment of stories told to projective stimuli. This schedule is based on the original short form proposed by Leopold Bellak for the interpretation of thematic projective techniques, and has proven useful for comparative studies involving different clinical and control groups. A sample of two stories illustrates its use. The compatibility of such schedule with psychodynamic approaches is shown by means of a comparison of data obtained with the CAT H of 30 preadolescents, ages 10 to 12, with a history of law violation, and 70 children of a control group, with no such history or any reported psychological issues. The control group showed higher frequency of identifications with positive features, which indicates positive self-image, and higher frequency of environment seen in a positive way. The offenders’ group showed an inability to identify with positive characters – usually the identification character misbehaves, is weak or impotent; the environment is often seen as threatening, thus, negative. These findings suggest negative self-image and issues in object relations of the offenders’ group. The results are compatible with literature data and the theoretical approaches that support this study. These findings highlight the relevance of a reliable environment to support these children.