Certain Israeli Traits and Their Relationship to Parental Defenses
Certain Israeli Traits and Their Relationship to Parental Defenses
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Issue Date
1987
Authors
Spieler, Ivria
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Abstract
The research attempted to explain certain of the Israelis' traits as a consequence of their parents' denial of certain feelings. This denial impaired the parents' ability to be attuned to similar feelings in their children and thus led to the development of narcissistic vulnerability, which is at the core of certain Israeli traits. Fifty questionnaires were completed by Israelis living in Israel and were analyzed with respect to parental characteristics as reported by the grown-up child. In general, the research's findings supported the hypotheses about Israeli traits and the unavailability of the parents to feelings of vulnerability in their children. The research, in general, did not support 1) the association of parents' discomfort with difficult feelings to the variables, or 2) the association of variables to parents' country of origin. It was unclear whether there was an association between parents' discomfort with difficult feelings and parents' country of origin. A number of hypotheses were not supported, and the research suggests some possible explanations for the problems the research encountered in achieving valid results. These rendered the conclusions questionable. The main recommendations of the research are: (1) The researcher should be present in Israel while performing the research; (2) Using projective tests is preferable to asking direct questions about sensitive issues; (3) The population should be sampled randomly.