Tom, a seven-year-old boy tends to sublimate his feelings. His drawing is shown in figure 180.

When Tom made his drawing he started with a small figure of himself, and when he reached the waist he paused, scribbled and this continued furiously. He turned the bottom part of his body into a powerful boat and in this way, he is close to the mother and controls her. It is noted in this drawing, that the boy insisted on putting the father and the dog on the reverse of the drawing, and wants to save the whole front page for himself and his mother. This boy's oedipal strivings are sublimated only in the drawing, and then in a not very covert way. The shading, the "masculine" boat, the undressed mother, and the relegating of the father and the pet to the opposite side is of obvious significance. However, here again the age of the child must be considered. If one thinks of the degree of pathology-he is in the midst of his oedipal strivings.

Fourteen-year-old Billy drew figure 181

One notes in his drawing, the forces between the two families. The boy is attempting to protect the mother from the intruding father. The competitiveness of the males again is shown clearly by the forces in the picture. The child must be aware of the relationship between the stepfather and the mother, as the sword is the largest weapon in the drawing. The boy, shooting his small darts, cannot hurt the father who protects himself with a shield, while the boy's darts break harmlessly, so the boy recognizing the sexuality of the relationship, also at the same time recognizes his impotency, which might very well account for his angry acting out behavior.

The force between siblings is often depicted as a ball. Figure 182 shows a very primitive drawing by a six-year-old:

He has great rivalry with his ten-year-old sister. This six year old is apparently still struggling within the oedipal situation, struggling for identification and one can surmise that the shading of everyone’s ‘private’ area, using a ball as the instrument of force, may very well depict the child's sexual preoccupations. In figure 183, we see an eleven-year-old boy who is extremely competitive with the father.

The force between him and his father again is of a healthy type, but this is the drawing of a very competitive boy. There is another interesting part of this drawing. The fact that he crossed out his first picture of himself, which depicted a very aggressive face and turned himself around, so one could see only the violent drawing of the ball, which is acceptable, but the violence of his face is turned away.

Drawing 184 shows what happens when a very competitive child is placed in a highly competitive family, but has no object against which to compete.

Diana, an eight-year-old girl, was placed in a foster home. She had previously lived in another foster home with her seven-year-old sister. She completely dominated the sister and was described as extremely competitive. In the school setting, the teacher mentioned that she always wanted responsibility and to be a leader in class. Diana was placed in a foster home with four boys, the youngest of whom was thirteen. She very much wanted to compete with them, but did not know how, and was thus acting out in school, where she was extremely competitive. The drawing again reflects the force of the ball, however it is directed towards the ground. The girl has not yet found a person with whom she can compete with in this family.

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