CORONARY HEART DISEASE AND RORSCHACH REPRESENTATION OF THE SELF

CORONARY HEART DISEASE AND RORSCHACH REPRESENTATION OF THE SELF Pagano Dritto Irene (1), Midili Maria (1), Merlo Emanuele Maria (1) (1) Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina The experience of the disease, such as that of heart disease has value in the construction and representation of the self if it involves a bodily component; the latter at variance with the visible parts of the embodiment is formed in the moment in which the organ gives signals of its presence (in arythmia, for instance) or of its pathology (infarct). The Self-Representation is a key concept of personality and of its operation (Rausch de Traubenberg, 1984): it reflects the somatic pathology and the subjective experience. In terms of subjective phenomenology, the study of such phenomena relies on the use of the Rorschach, whose production base is linked to Pareidolia (Jaspers, 1913). This form of experience, prompting the projection of unconscious qualities regardless of the percept, allows a content analysis of the responses helped by the work of Rausch de Traubenberg. As suggested by Lin et al (2016), there are positive correlations with hostility, depression, anxiety, depressive rumination, highlighted in psychometric terms, not as images. As Mendoca et al (2015) pointed out, the psychological difficulties found agreement with the subjectivity, but the methodoloy used here, thanks to the features of projective methods, allows us a significantly deeper investigation. The Grill of Representation of Self by Rausch de Traubenberg, finally, is the guarantor of understanding and deepening of a possible typical representation even for subjects with somatic problems. Thus, the production that symbolically shows the unconscious, becomes clinical evidence. In this study the authors want to verify the existence of archaic conflicts in relation to the amount of inanimate movement response and representation of the self through the anatomy contents, according to the psychoanalytic theory of Freud and Jung. The observation group is made up of 40 subjects aged between 32 and 76 years. The evaluation, rather than being carried out with one of the dominant methods of projective Rorschach (Passi Tognazzo, 1994 and Exner, 2007), makes use to the “Grill of self representation” of Rausch de Traubenberg (1984). With reference to this Grill, four columns are present, the first specifying the layout tied to Human, Animal and Inanimate categories. Assigning the contents of the responses to the Rorschach subcategories, a typical prevalence can be deduced, through which the representation that the subject has of his own Self emerges. The innervation of the organ and then of its energy investment is projected in the representation of the self. By analyzing the answers through the use of the Grid of selfrepresentation, the following evidences were observed: a low frequency of inanimate movement response (m = 1%) in the inanimate category (21%); a high percentage of anatomy contents to (13%) of the whole human category (U = 25%); a high percentage of animals content (54%). Considering the body as the seat of psychic energy, in light of these results it is possible both to individuate, according to Freud (1926), that the body is perceived as devitalized in some parts, and to consider the latter as alienated parts of the self. In Jungian theory there was a disorganization of the image of the self. The psychic totality of the self is perceived, by people with heart disease, not as psychic unit that includes all human psychic phenomena, but as fragmented and devitalized. Similarly in study of Jung (1945) on patients with schizophrenia, the self is split. Thus, between schizophrenia and somatic disorders, even if different at clinical level, the root can be noted of an operational thinking which involves the alteration in representation of the self. Concluding, the frequency of anatomy contents and of the root canal treatment phenomena show that the energy within the body is reduced, characterizing a somatic problem. The study allows for reflection between image, symbol and projection of the body in the psyche. References Freud S. (1926). L’Io e l’Es. inibizione, sintomo e angoscia. Newton Compton editori. Jacobi J. (1971). Il Simbolo. N°4. Rivista di psicologia analitica. Jung C.G. (1945). Der Philosophische Baum. Bollati Boringhieri. Karl, J. (1913). Psicopatologia generale. Il pensiero Scientifico Editore. Lin, I. M., Wang, S. Y., Chu, I. H., Lu, Y. H., Lee, C. S., Lin, T. H., & Fan, S. Y. (2016). The Association of Type D personality with Heart Rate Variability and Lipid Profiles Among Patients with Coronary Artery Disease. 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