Culpabilité écran chez une mère ayant perdu son enfant des suites d’un cancer au CHDSMP : une approche clinique et projective du travail de deuil

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to explore the sociodynamic factors that complicate the mourning process for a mother who has lost her son to cancer. The study begins with the observation that, following the loss of her child, the mother accuses her father of having sacrificed his child in order to become rich. She seems to blame her father, her family, for the loss. However, according to theorists of complicated grief, when faced with the loss of a child, the mother takes responsibility for the loss upon herself, reproaching herself for not having been able to protect the child, for having been negligent and absent. This transfer of guilt prevents the mother from feeling the guilt of the loss, which is a prerequisite for the work of mourning. Hence, the following research question: ‘What are the sociodynamic factors that complicate the grieving process in a mother who has lost her son to cancer? The study is based on an exploratory paradigm and adopts a qualitative approach. It focused on a mother who had lost her child to blood cancer and was attending the Saint Martin de Porres Dominican Hospital in Mvog-Bétsi. The data, collected using the Rorschach test and semi- structured interviews with the mother, were analyzed using the French approach of Nina Rausch de Traubenberg (1977) and thematic content analysis respectively. The results show that the bereaved mother's screen guilt is a sociodynamic factor complicating the work of a mother who has lost her child to cancer. In other words, the mother's guilt towards the supreme being is a sociodynamic factor complicating the work of mourning in a mother who has lost her child to cancer; the mother's guilt towards the community is a sociodynamic factor complicating the work of mourning in a mother who has lost her child to cancer; the mother's guilt towards the family is a sociodynamic factor complicating the work of mourning in a mother who has lost her child to cancer. As an implication, a study taking into account this sociodynamic dimension is likely to provide new knowledge on the metallization processes in mothers who have lost their child to cancer.