HOMOSEXUALITY AND OBJECT RELATIONS: A STUDY BY THE OBJECT RELATIONS TECHNIQUE (ORT)

CACCIARRU B.;CARTA S.;LAMPIS, JESSICA;DESSÌ A.;PISU S.;SECCHI J.

2009-01-01

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Abstract

The Object Relations Technique (Phillipson, 1955) is a projective test that was established to assess the object relationships of the subject and his ability to establish and maintain relationships. The theoretical framework of the instrument is based on the English school of object relations, especially to the thought of Klein and Fairbairn. The tables that make up the ORT are related to different degrees of reality content and emotional context, through a different modulation of colour and vagueness of stimulus-silhouettes. Thepresent study applies this technique to the study of homosexuals object relations, male and female, using the first Italian scoring grid for the evaluation of ORT stories (Lis et al., 2002), which meets the cluster of variables indicated by Phillipson (structure of the story, perception of the characters, types of relationships) and provides the normative data. In addition to the ORT, the MMPI-2 and the BSRI (Bem, 1971) was given to a sample consisting of 40 people and through a between subjects factorial design with equivalent control group (10 heterosexual men, 10 homosexual males, 10 heterosexual females and 10 homosexual females). The results about the significant differences in the different groups will be discussed, at: 1) a level of structure of the “internal world” (aspects of narrative, perceptual, relational, emotional and psychodynamic statistically depth by ANOVA and ACM) – with a particular emphasis on the imbalance of the anal defence mechanisms which emerged in the group of homosexual men – and 2) at a comparative psychometric level between the tools used.