| The application of object relations and psychoanalytic theory to Sandplay was studied. Two groups of therapists, 20 psychoanalytic and 20 control, experienced in child psychotherapy, rated three different sandworlds on 40 theoretical constructs and 4 bogus constructs. The dependent measure, "The Object Relations and Psychoanalytic Assessment of Sandworlds Scale" (ORPASS) was developed specifically for this study to assess representations of psychosexual stage development, representations of affect, and representations of object relations from photographs of sandworlds. Five hypotheses were tested to compare differences between subject groups among ratings of ORPASS constructs. Counter to predictions, there were no significant differences between groups. However, both groups rated many theoretical constructs of ORPASS with high percent agreement among subjects. Also, the ratings of sandworlds by both groups were similar to the criteria established by experienced judges, demonstrating that subjects applied the theoretical constructs accurately. The most striking results of the study were the many significant differences found for the sandworld effect as both groups rated differences between each sandworld. The overall findings of this study suggest that Sandplay is a useful technique for uncovering unconscious processes consistent with psychoanalytic theory. More importantly, it was shown that Sandplay can be interpreted from an object relations and psychoanalytic viewpoint. |
