Szondi
Test:
Its
Interpretation
and
Graphological
Indicators1
By
Arthur
C. Johnston, PhD
©
2006
by
Arthur C. Johnston
1
Omitted are all graphological materials that appeared in the
2001 edition.
Included are:
Extracts from Martin Achtnich’s book Der
Berufsbilder-Test [Occupation Picture-Test], 1979
Extracts from Lipot Szondi’ books, both translated by Arthur
C. Johnston
Extracts from Susan Deri’s book Introduction to the Szondi Test:
Theory and Practice, 1949
An
Introduction to Szondi, Achtnich, and Occupations
Lipot Szondi: A
Short Biography
Lipot Szondi was not a psychiatrist or psychoanalyst,
despite his intense interest and work in these areas. He was an internist, specifically an
endocrinologist. But psychopathology and
psychology were his side interests. From
1927 to 1941, Szondi was in charge of a psychology laboratory at the
His original inspirations for his
genealogical investigations were a dream and his interest in Fyodor
Dostoevsky’s work and life. Dostoevsky,
the Russian novelist in the 19th Century, was an epileptic who had epileptics
and murders in his family tree. His novel
The Idiot is about a priest who is an epileptic and becomes involved
with a murderer. The Brothers Karamazov has an epileptic son kill his
father and another son who is a priest.
The Epileptic Drive Circle has epileptics, murderers, and priests.
Sigmund
Freud believed in drives but always kept to pairs of drives such as love and
aggression or ego and id and never wanted to study or create a systematic
analysis of human drives. Szondi created
the four drives based on his insights and the psychiatric and psychoanalytic
knowledge of his time.
In 1941,
Szondi was driven out of the
In 1944,
he published Schicksalsanalyse (in German), his book on genealogical
work and the drives. The title of the
book means Fate Analysis. In this
book he introduced the concept of the latent genes. Mendel’s pea experiments illustrate this: a
wrinkled pea has a latent gene of a smooth pea, and vice versa. Two latent genes will produce an outward
characteristic, but if only one latent gene is present, the dominant gene will
determine the characteristic. These latent genes, according to Szondi, are not
without effects however. They represent
our family ancestors and can become our future ones. They belong to the realm of the unknown, the
unconscious. Szondi called this area
the Familial Unconscious, which has all our latent ancestors. Szondi adds this Familial Unconscious to
Freud’s Personal Unconscious and to Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious.
How do
these latent genes affect a person?
Szondi concludes that these latent genes determine our choices: choice
of friends, lovers, forms of illnesses (both physical and mental), jobs,
interests, sports, hobbies, and even our form of death in some cases. All this occurs through genotropism, the like
choosing the like. Trope means to
lean toward. Birds of a feather flock
together, so to speak. The latent genes
through the choices we make determine our fate; thus, this is determinism. But the ego has a say in all this and can
make conscious choices that give us freedom.
In 1947,
Szondi published Experimentelle Triebdiagnostik [Experimental Drive
Diagnostic]. Since it was time
consuming and very difficult to trace the family tree to see all the influences
of the latent genes, Szondi created the Szondi test as a quick way to see what
choices, projected from the Familial Unconscious, were working in a person’s
life. This book in 1947 gave the
interpretations for the Szondi test.
This test consists of six sets of eight pictures of the extreme
manifestations of the different drive needs that are present in humans. These are the bisexual [normally called
homosexual], the sadist, the epileptic in the control stage, the hysteric, the
catatonic, the paranoid, the depressive of the manic–depressive, and the manic
of the manic-depressive. We all have the
same drives as these extremes but in different quantities and combinations.
In the
Fifties, hundreds of publications on Szondi’s work were published in English
and other languages in
However,
Szondi’s genealogical basis for his work was not accepted by professionals in
that field. And since Szondi’s drive
circles and ideas covered the professional areas of Freudian psychoanalysis,
Jung’s Analytical Psychology, Adler’s psychology, among others, and since
Szondi was not a member of any of these groups, he had difficulty being
accepted by them. Even today, some of
the users of his test, ideas, and theories reject the genealogical part of his
work. Others do not.
In
In 1969,
Szondi established the Szondi Institute, which is still in operation. Szondi was awarded Honorary Doctor from the
two Universities of Louvain (1969) and Paris (1975). The
In 1979,
Martin Achtnich published his Der Berufsbilder-Test [The Occupations
Picture Test], still used today, which has Szondi’s eight needs for
selecting one’s occupation. This test
consists of 96 pictures [one set for men and one for women]. Each picture is of a person in an occupational
setting. For example, a reporter
interviewing someone. The Testee
chooses the pictures he likes, those that are disliked, and those that are
indifferent to him. Each picture
represents one of Szondi’s eight needs.
Thus, a profile of the Testee’s drive profile is obtained. Since one’s needs choose the area of work,
then a recommendation can be made for possible occupations. The test manual gives wonderful insights into
the practical workings of the eight needs in one’s everyday life.
The web site
for The Szondi Forum [www.szondiforum.org] under the guidance of Leo Berlips
shows the countries and people that have an intense interest in Szondi’s Test
and his ideas. There are active groups
in
The
books on graphology and Szondi works are flourishing. And there’s a growing interest in the
Many
academics and professionals in psychoanalysis and psychiatry often shy away
from Szondi’s work because of the disputes over his work and its validity and
because his work crosses so many different fields. No one field can claim him as one of
theirs. Szondi is describing the human
condition in a universal way.
Szondi’s
Thinking behind the Test
Szondi
believes there are three kinds of unconscious: the Personal Unconscious,
identified and explored by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious,
which explores the symbols, myths, and patterns of thought and actions that
belong to everyone universally, and Szondi’s own Familial Unconscious, which is
composed of the genetic ancestors within each of us. The Personal Unconscious produces symptoms;
the Collective Unconscious symbols; and the Familial Unconscious choice.
Our
genes from our two parents determine who we are. If both parents contribute the same gene to
an offspring, then the inheritor will have this characteristic. Brown eyes would be an example: both parents
have the gene that produces brown eyes.
However, a child may have different colored eyes but be a carrier of the
brown eye gene from one parent. The
brown eye gene is therefore latent and can become dominant if later the
offspring mates with a carrier of the brown eye gene and both brown eye genes
are passed from each parent.
Szondi
affirms that these latent genes are not powerless. He believes that these
latent genes determine one’s choices of loved ones, jobs, forms of illness and
even death, character traits, intellectual interests, and sports. And much more.
How is
this so? Szondi believes that when we
are attracted to a person, we do so because we both are conductors of some
latent ancestor. Let’s say that in one’s
father was a manifest epileptic, but one’s mother was not. One of the children could become a carrier of
the epileptic gene—thus be a latent epileptic—and consequently would not be a
manifest epileptic. If this conductor of
the latent epileptic gene met another person who was also a carrier of the
latent epileptic gene, they would both feel an affinity for each other, for
both would, in a sense, belong to the same family circle of epileptics. Of course, the conductor of the latent
epileptic gene would be attracted to a manifest epileptic.
Szondi
calls this attraction force genotropism.
Another
example: suppose a person descends from a schizophrenic father and a healthy
mother. Since there are not passed two
dominant genes representing schizophrenia, the descendant does not manifest any
schizophrenic disorder. However, this
latent schizophrenic gene would determine one’s choices in love, jobs,
interests, activities, and other phases of one’s life. This is the Schicksal—Fate—part of Szondi’s
thinking. The other part of his thinking
is that the ego has some freedom in choosing what will be acceptable or not. Freedom and Fate are two sides of the same
coin.
It is
important to realize that just because one chooses a picture of a mentally ill
person such as a depressive does not mean that one is a manifest
depressive. The genes represent drives
and more specifically needs that must be satisfied. And there are many ways a need can be
satisfied and thus relieve the tension.
Ulrich Moser in The Szondi Test in Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment
lists the possible ways the sadism (s) need may be satiated:
• native
satiation: sadism, perversion
• normal
satiation: activity, masculine behavior of varying degrees
•
sublimation: that is, “struggle” for humane goals
• drive
disorder: neurosis, psychosis: defense against aggression
•
genotropic satiation: choice of a sadistic partner (libidotropism)
•
criminal satiation: slaying by means of a hatchet, knife, etc.
•
character formation through introjection (k+): being hard-hearted, for example
•
occupations: slaughter, soldier, butcher, sculpturer, hunter, wrestler, boxer.
The
charts on each Drive, showing the two opposing needs, are divided so that one
can see how the needs are satiated. For
example, the “Phylogenetic, animalistic,” “Psychic Characteristics,”
“Pathologic, extreme, and negative manifestations” [including drive disorders,
delinquency, suicide], “Physiologic, normal socialized manifestations
[including Drive symptoms, maturity, socialization, character, occupation,
professional field,” and “Socially Positive manifestations on a higher level
[including Sublimation and occupations.]”
When one looks at the results of the Szondi
Test, one cannot immediately know how a particular need is being
satisfied. Only by studying the company
each need keeps can one determine the possible ways a need is being satisfied. One test is not sufficient to give an
adequate picture of one’s needs; for this reason, ten tests are the standard
number given over a period of weeks.
Szondi
in the same book that Ulrich Moser appears gives some clear examples about how
one satisfies one’s needs in socially acceptable ways. He notes that descendants of mentally
disordered persons become the most capable and natural psychiatrists or
psychiatric nurses. Descendants of
querulents (willful litigants)—the paranoia area—unconsciously choose occupations
such as district attorney and judge.
Szondi also cites the situation where there was a criminal in the
person’s family, and this person became a prison guard. Most interestingly, Szondi cited the
situation where two identical twins were separated and one became a criminal
and one a prison guard.
Fundamental
to all of Szondi’s thinking is the idea of opposites—or schisms. The need h opposes s; h+, h-; s+, s-; h+ s-,
h- s+, and many other possible oppositions within the drive itself. The negative, positive, ambivalent, and zero
choices initially given make up the foreground drive picture, which is closest
to consciousness. Szondi, however,
creates a theoretical opposite to this initial test result and calls this the
background drive picture. This
represents a deeper layer of the familial unconscious. It is a matter of opposites: one cannot have
light without darkness, good without evil, Christ without the Devil, masochism
without sadism.
Under
certain conditions, the background drive picture—really the drive of a
potential fate or past family member—can come to the fore and thus switch
positions with the foreground. A mild
mannered person, for example, under the influence of alcohol or drugs can become
belligerent. An extremely shy person by
the excessive shyness calls attention to herself or himself, for in the
background of the shy person is the show-off.
Ulrich
Moser in his chapter of the book on Szondi gives some interesting insights on
the operation of the foreground and background drive pictures, which he calls
the predecessor and successor. He
believes that the foreground [predecessor] represents the needs that have been
repressed in the personal unconscious and thus have been internalized as
reaction formations, character elements, and symptoms. The foreground also greatly determines our
dreams and character.
The
background, however, has these effects.
One, it adds an emotional coloration to the foreground. For example, the passive person (s-) however
in this very passivity is demanding and thus has a distinct aggressive nuance
(s+). The background has a great
influence on the symptoms chosen.
The
background [or successor] expresses itself in choosing persons in our
lives. We may often choose persons who have
the same drive structure in their foreground, which is our own background. This often happens in choice of occupations:
the background finds satisfaction in an occupation. For example an apparently good person becomes
a policeman and spends his life chasing criminals, who represent the
policeman’s own criminal background drive system. The fireman working for the good of society
to stop the pyromaniacs of this world can satisfy his own background strivings
to set fires. Szondi always is
stressing that the only difference between the abnormal and the normal is a
matter of quantity, not quality.
One
final opposition among many is that of the middle two drives [Paroxysmal and
Schizophrenic, or Ego] and the peripheral drives Sexual and Contact. The Paroxysmal is the realm of the Superego;
thus, the middle represents the Superego and Ego defending against the drive
perils represented by the border drives Sexual and Contact [anal and oral] and
its own dangers created within itself.
Szondi
calls the middle the censorial system since it is concerned with the
individual’s system of values, his attitudes, and his orientation toward
life. And this area makes the decisions
that will determine one’s behavior:
e = the ethical censor [the
internal censor of conscience]
hy = the moral censor [the
adapting to society’s views of morality]
k = the censor of reality
p = the censor of ideals.
The
ethical and moral issues belong to the realm of the superego.
A final
opposition is that of Dur-Moll. These
German words in Szondi’s sense means masculine (Dur) and feminine (Moll). As you will see the
The
masculine needs are h-, s+, e-, hy+, k+/- and +, p 0, d+, and m-.
The
feminine needs are h+, s-, e+, hy-, k0, p +/- and +, d-, and m+.
The Szondi Test
[See
Susan Deri’s book Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice for
greater details.]
The
Szondi Test is a projective test. The
purpose of the Szondi Test is to reflect the personality as a functioning
dynamic whole. The test is dynamic
because it shows the drive needs of a person, which are constantly undergoing
changes. For example, an Epileptic goes
through a stage of rising tension, explosive discharge, and peaceful state; the
Szondi Test if given in each stage would reflect the changing tensions of the
drive needs.
The
eight pictures of each set represent the drive needs [factors] and their degree
of tension. These needs act as the
driving forces in a person in that one performs certain acts and chooses or
avoids certain objects or persons. These
objects are chosen or avoided to reduce the tension caused by the unreleased
need. The specific type of activity or
goal objects will be determined by the particular drive need.
The
eight needs, or factors, represented by the extreme states of the hermaphrodite
[or bisexual] who is generally labeled as a homosexual[1],
sadist, epileptic, hysteric, catatonic, paranoid, depressive, and manic
correspond to the eight need systems in the person taking the test. The eight types of mental and emotional diseases
and perversions represent certain psychological needs in extreme form which are
present to some degree in every person.
A normal person or an abnormal one can choose from the pictures; the
quantity of positive and negative choices and the resulting patterns can
indicate the state of either one.
The
person taking the test chooses pictures from the factor, or need, that
corresponds to his own need that is in tension.
The greater the number of pictures chosen from one factor [both likes
and dislikes], the greater the tension of this drive need in the person. These needs with the greatest number of
choices represent the underlying causes of one’s manifest behavior.
On the
other hand, the lack of choices in a certain factor means that the corresponding
need is not in a state of tension. This
can be true because of constitutional weakness of the drive need or because the
need is lived out in some adequate activity.
This is an “open” reaction. There is the least resistance to the need
being lived out. That is why observed
symptoms and manifest behavior can be interpreted on the basis of these open or
drained reactions. However, the quality
of these behaviors can be psychotic, neurotic, antisocial, or normal. A sadist may live out his aggressive need by
actually harming others; whereas, a surgeon may use the same aggression to help
others.
The
underlying psychodynamic causes of one’s observable behavior—shown by the open
responses—is indicated by the loaded
factors indicated by the like and dislike choices. This is similar to the case of the latent and
dominant genes: the choices are determined by the latent—hidden—genes and the
dominant genes—here the open responses—determine the manifest behavior. Of course, the ego has a part in these choices.
A positive response for pictures
representing a certain factor, or need, indicates a conscious or unconscious
identification with the motivational forces as depicted by the photographs of
the particular need.
A negative response indicates the existence of a
counter-identification with the psychological processes of the stimulating
pictures. We are not referring to
repression when citing a negative response since this can be a conscious
choice, and repression only works unconsciously.
An ambivalent reaction
means that both a counter-identification and identification are present. There
is some self-control acting in this indecisive situation about the discharge of
tension in actual activities.
Therefore, these are subjective
internal symptoms as seen, for example, in compulsives and
hypochondriacs. The objective symptoms are represented by the open reactions.
A
fundamental aspect of the final total at the end of the Scoring Sheet is the
foreground and background ego. The
foreground ego is the profile first obtained on the Scoring Sheet: for example:
h- s+ e- hy+ k+/- p0 d+ m-. However,
behind this ego possible fate is another one: the background ego, which is the
reverse of the previous one: h+ s- e+ hy- k 0 p +/- d- m+. The foreground ego has a male sexual drive, a
Cain—do evil—Paroxysmal drive, a compulsive masculine material ego, and an
unfaithful object relationship in the Contact Vector. Under certain circumstances, his background
ego could appear—as under the influence of alcohol, for example: a female
sexual drive, an Able—a do-gooder, a feminine ego, and a faithful object
relationship.
The
Sexual Drive
I. The Sexual Vector [Drive] (S):
[See Susan Deri’s book Introduction
to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice for greater details.]
h
factor (represented by pictures of hermaphrodites [bisexuals] but generally
labeled as passive homosexuals) corresponding to the need for passive
tenderness and yieldingness: bindng and being one in love [Achtnich:
Femininity, Softness]
s
factor (represented by pictures of sadists) which corresponds to the need
for physical activity and aggressive manipulation of objects: immediate release
from and separation [Achtnich: Body Power, Coldness, Hardness].
What is a Vector? It is a force that has both magnitude and
direction. In science, a vector
describes what happens when two forces act on a body [in this case the Vector]
and influence its direction:
h (homosexuality) is a factor that goes in a different
direction from s (sadism).
S (The Sexual Vector, or Drive) is a common goal for both
needs and the result of the two active forces (h and s).
s Vector
s (sadism) is a factor that goes in a different direction from the h factor.
The h+ Factor
(h = homosexual)
(Achtnich: Femininity, Softness)
Martin
Achtnich in his instruction book for Der Berufsbilder-Test [The
Occupations Pictures Test] renames this factor “Femininity, Giving in,
Feeling, Softness, and Touch needs.” He
changed the name to avoid the connotations of illness or perversion and to make
the need more acceptable to the public.
Achtnich and Szondi both made clear that the choice of these pictures
does not mean that one is a bisexual or homosexual. This and all Szondi needs are universal and
thus present in everyone.
This h
need in the sexual drive (or vector) represents the tender yielding part of
sexuality and relationships. This is the
need that represents the feminine as classically viewed. A key point is that it contains little or no
motor energy. The need is for sensual
contact through the sense of touch. It
is the opposite of the s [sadism] need, where grabbing and manipulating a
physical object is primary; in the h plus case, there are no active moves of
this kind. The occupation of hair
dresser, which involves touching the client, represents a social expression of
this need. On a higher level, a physical
therapist, who must use one’s hands to work on a patient, exhibits this need.
Hermaphrodites
[bisexuals], those represented in the Szondi test, are an extreme expression of
this ever- present human need. These
males who are seeking love with persons of their own sex are primarily looking
for tender love, not the actual intercourse.
They seek the kind of love given by their mother. This is the love that is passive longing
without any physical activity to secure the one loved.
In his later analysis of this need, Szondi
labeled it “Eros” after the Greek god of love.
He wrote:
There
is no binding in the living world without factor h. It is the most powerful
among the bindings. It is the receiver
and giver in love and tenderness. It is
the strongest power, which holds all together, what in the world lives and
loves. Factor h is consequently the Eros
radical, the root of love and tenderness and the basis of attraction and
binding. It is as well the creator of
individual personal love (h+) and also that of love of humanity (h-). Factor h is also not only one of the two
builtup factors of sexuality. It is the
factor of each binding of human to human in sex and love, in body and spirit.
When one
chooses h plus, this person accepts and identifies with this need for sensual
longing that is unrelated to any active moves toward satisfaction. This is a feminine identification and means
specifically a non-genital need for love and caressing in an infantile sense of
mother and child.
Extreme
frustration of this need as a child can lead to antisocial and psychotic
behavior. Also individuals who do not
choose higher sublimated work such as dermatologists and gynecologists (dealing
with touching and the feminine) or cultural activities as lyric poets
(expressing personal feelings) or musicians (expressing feelings and touching
musical instruments like a banjo) often choose work that involves personal care
of others and receiving personal affection in return.
Occupations: The Royal Road
It would be great if you could have
some verification about the Szondi factors.
You will not have any difficulty
getting someone to tell you his or her occupation or interests. Once you have this information, you have
great insight into the leading need of the person. Sigmund Freud said that dreams are the royal
road to the unconscious. Occupations and
interests are the royal road to the Szondi factors, or needs.
For instance, if you are told that the
person runs a hat store, then you know that the h+ factor, or need, is a
prominent one and is being socialized in this occupation. What’s the connection between selling hats
and the h+ need? One of the ways someone
can live out the h+ need for touching is to touch soft materials, clothing, and
textiles. The s+ need, on the other
hand, causes one to want to deal with hard materials like steel, iron, or
bronze.
Occupations
Satisfying the h Need
In his book Schicksalsanalyse: Wahl
in Lieb, Freudschaft, Beruf, Krankheit und Tod [Fate Analysis:
Choice in Love, Friendship, Occupation, Illness and Death], Szondi
establishes that there are four parts involved in one’s choice of an
occupation:
The activity, or function,
The means or working tool,
The occupation or professional
object/material/goal
The place.
For instance: a physical therapist’s activities
are to touch, to feel (something), to stoke, to massage, to have to do with the
naked body [in some cases] or, in others, to bath or to wash someone; the means
is the hand or finger; the professional object is the human body, sometimes
naked; the place is a warm room.
In his Der Berufsbilder-Test [Occupations
Pictures Test] manual, Martin Achtnich indicates that each choice of an
occupation or job involves two needs: the first need is primary and the second
is subordinate but important too. There
can be more than two needs involved in one’s choice of an occupation, but
Achtnich concentrates on the two most important ones. In the case of a physical therapist, the
primary need is h+ [in Achtnich’s analysis, the Feminine, Softness need], and
the secondary need is e+ [Szondi’s
The Activity, or function, presented
by Achtnich offers quick insights into the working of a need.
The
functions for h+ [femininity, softness] are:
[1] to touch, to feel (something), to stroke, to
massage, to have to do with the naked body (masseur, physical therapist, nurse,
musician of string and plucking instruments);
[2]
to bath or to wash (jobs concerning
body hygiene);
[3] to work on someone’s hair, to put scent or
perfume on someone (hair stylist, beautician);
[4]
to serve or to wait on (serving jobs
in general);
[5] to do handwork with soft fabrics and
materials, clothing, or textiles (tailors, show window decorator, florist,
textile decorator);
[6] to be full of feelings, to sacrifice, to be
full of love, to behave lyrically toward the occupational object (musician,
lyric professions which allow one to express his or her feelings).
[7] to do activities which appeal directly or
indirectly to the erotic (dancer, ballet master, film director, model
photographer, art and poets concerned with eroticism, lyric poet,
dermatologist, sexual researcher, sexual psychologist);
[8] or to sell articles involving number one,
two, three, five, or seven (textile and fashion salespersons, hair and textiles
salespersons).
Just knowing these eight functions, or
activities, greatly helps to identify the h+ need in different occupations and
jobs.
For number one function, or activity
[to touch or to feel someone], the means or working tool is the hand or finger;
the occupational object, the human body, skin, fur, textiles, soft and warm
materials even including soft woods, musical sting instruments; the places are
warm rooms, places with an intimate atmosphere, hospitals; the occupations are
masseur, physical therapist, pedicurist, midwife, nurse, cosmetologist, pastry
cook [soft material involved], musician [string and plucking instruments].
Remember, however, that there is a
secondary need, and sometimes more, in each occupation. For instance, musical interests express the p
need as well as the h+ need.
Function number four above [to serve
or to wait on] has as its means or work tool: turning toward customers and the
served as a subordinate; the occupation object: guest, customer, the served,
the looked-after; the place: fashion and wash establishments, having guests as
a trade business; the occupations: service industry in the widest sense. The waitress, waiter, and hotel manager fit
these categories.
The
h- Factor
(h = homosexual)
(Achtnich:
Femininity, Softness)
Those
who indicate that they dislike the pictures of hermaphrodites [bisexuals] when
taking the Szondi test are showing a counter-identification with whatever the h
need expresses. Susan Deri in her book Introduction
to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice states that this means that these
persons do not want to accept this need for personal tender affection. However, that does not mean that the need is
lacking. The total number of positive or
negative responses to a need indicates the power of this need in one’s drive
life. If all six choices were negative,
the need would be extremely powerful. What
could be present is a reaction formation—a reversal of an action. For example, because of insecurity in the
sexual area, one could overemphasize the sadism part of sexuality: the weak man
who hides his weakness through the bluff and bluster of being macho.
The h
minus moves from the personal love of h plus to the love of humanity. Thus, those choosing h minus identify
themselves with this more abstract form of affection: love of humanity. These people often are cool in interpersonal
relations but show warm social or artistic attitudes. For example, some intellectuals tend to
sublimate their need for tender personal love into various forms of humanistic
and culturally desirable activities.
Women
who choose h minus may have sexual difficulties since h minus is an
active repression of the h plus, which is feminine. Thus the women are choosing a masculine
identification since normal men choose h minus with s plus and normal women
choose h plus and s minus. Here we are
discussing the native living out of a need; there are many ways for a need to
be lived out.
Those who
have h minus will express their needs genotropically, that is, through choice
of lovers, friends, jobs, interests, sports, illnesses, and even forms of
death. The socialized, not native, form of the h need will be chosen.
Interpretation
of the Negative Reaction
According to
Achtnich
The turning away from signifies an
important strong measure of interest and attraction as that which lets us be
indifferent or what we are not able to decide.
The defense becomes affectively and emotionally valued. The question arises: What does the testee
defend with a revealed minus factor?
|
The Denied Factor |
the native, original Factor need |
the defense directed against |
the working out of the defense is a reaction formation |
|
-W [h-] Femininity |
Touching and feeling needs |
one’s own weakness, latent homosexuality |
insecurity in the sexual
area; overemphasis of K [muscle power: s+] or SE [energy-minded; Cain: e-] |
Why does the testee as noted deny
exactly these factors? The answer
follows:
a. Either
the testee does not have this need in general; that is, there is an absence of
a relationship to this factor,
b. Or
simply this need is so inherently strong that it means a danger to the testee,
c. Or this
need in the course of education and development learned this kind of defense
that there can be no more development. The testee has accepted this manner of
defense in his environment against this need and made it his own defense
behavior. This mechanism plays a striking
role in the building of one’s conscience and in the formation of one’s social
behavior.
Which meaning now does the denied,
respectively not chosen factors for the occupation choice? Can one assume that the testee will simply
have noting to with the denied factor? This
can be the situation, but it is not always so: namely not when the same denied
primary factor appears as a positive secondary factor. This phenomenon is known as “Reversion.”
The
Reversion
Reversion appears in the test as
follows:
A factor is denied as a primary factor
but appears in the ranking succession of secondary factors in the front or not
very far from it. This means that the
denied factor seeks after an indirect occupation substitute satisfaction. What are now the indirect substitute
satisfactions of a denied need? The need
can be no more directed along the path of the function activity. It becomes
transformed therein into interest in the
object.
The denied factors appear also in the
test in two ways:
[1] complete defense: in the test in
the front of the rank of negative primary factors and simultaneously at the
front of the ranking of the negative secondary factors.
[2] reversion: in the test at the end of the
raking of the positive primary factors but simultaneously at the front (or very
close to it) in the rank of positive secondary factors.
Accordingly, the minus choices have
two aspects: the complete defense against a factor and the reversion.
A reversion is always a “discrepancy
between the foreground and hinterground,” which means the testee is neurotic in
relationship to this need: the original need is repressed and seeks now a vent
for itself. The reversion leads to an “indirect satisfaction” of the need in
which a transformation of the native need into an occupation interest
occurs. The direct need satisfaction
represents no unconditional “primitive” but indirectly a “higher” occupation
solution. The indirect satisfaction not
compulsively to a spiritualization, which still in the first case depends if
understanding and spirit are present. It
is however the privilege of spiritual men that this possibility stands open to
unstructure [umzustrukturieren] his needs and to put them into and
integrate them into a spiritual connection.
In this case, the factors S (social minded), Z (aesthetic needs), V
(understanding/thinking), and G (spirit) come to particular significance, which
are the bearer factors of these unstructured and socialization tendencies. It also lets itself be designated as the
kernel factors of the personality.
In
the next tables are the complete defense and the reversion for the h factor.
|
Minus Factor |
Complete defense |
Reversion |
|
-W [h-] |
Denial of any bodily
touching. Lovelessness. Contact disturbance. |
Loving turning toward the
partner without coming into any bodily contact with him or her (Example: a
teacher’s behavior toward a student) |
The h 0 Factor
(h = homosexual; 0 = open or drained)
Anytime there
is a zero number or only one or one each of a like and dislike for a need, this
indicates that the need for being the passive receiver of love is being lived
out. The result is a lack of tension. Small children and infantile adults who are
loved and pampered as a child would supply an open h factor. This could occur also in the native living
out of the need by impotent men and overt homosexuality. If the homosexual is a female, then this is a
passive type who has a strong attachment to a mother figure and then attaches
herself submissively and dependently to a mother figure.
The open
h can also appear temporarily after sexual intercourse or masturbation.
On a
higher cultural level, this open h can appear in those who can sublimate
intellectually without being disturbed by sexual tension.
Ultimately,
there is no real difference between a loaded factor (including both likes and
dislikes) and an open factor. One can
change into the other, and both indicate the presence of the need, or factor,
in one’s life. Only in those cases
where the open factor does not change is indicated that this is a
constitutional weakness.
A loaded
factor--four to six choices, either likes or dislikes--often precedes an open
reaction. The loaded factor also works
genotropically and thus determines one’s choices of lovers, friends, interests,
sports, occupations, illnesses, and, sometimes, forms of death. Szondi writes, “An understanding of the
dynamics underlying these two extreme reaction types reveals that there is no
qualitative difference between open and loaded reactions. An open reaction does not mean that the
particular drive tendencies are nonexistent in the individual’s makeup; it
means merely that a previously loaded drive tendency has diminished in dynamic
force as a result of discharge. This
explains the tendency of certain subjects to produce an ambivalent loaded
reaction in the first test and an open reaction in the second or vice versa. Drive tendencies are in a dynamic process,
subject to change and variation and are not absolute stable psychic factors.