The relationship between parents and children starts from their birth. This relationship works in a mutual interaction that is more intimate than any other relationships are and is characterized by its continuity. Although there have been many discuss...
The relationship between parents and children starts from their birth. This relationship works in a mutual interaction that is more intimate than any other relationships are and is characterized by its continuity. Although there have been many discussions about the relationship between the mother and the children or the role of the mother, discussing the relationship between the father and children, despite its importance, has relatively been neglected.
Due to the changes in society and consequent changes in the type of families, and the improvement of women’s social status have transformed the status and role of the father. The circumstances at work have also changed due to the deepening of capitalism and intense competition. Modern society often standardizes ideal rules on how to raise children and forces fathers to participate in raising children and to sacrifice themselves for the ideal family and its happiness. Mass media also amplify and extend this ideal. Fathers can be considered victims in this process. But fathers are not the only victims of this process because children also find themselves in a different circumstance. The fall of the birth rate, a prominent tendency in modern society, has resulted in the number of children per family, and more parents ask for more from their children. Dissatisfaction from these requests often results in conflicts between parents and children.
Particularly, the confrontation between parents who lived an era where material goods were lacking and children who live a life rich in resources, parents who lived their childhood in rural towns and children who now live in cities, parents who follow more or less traditional value and children who do not, makes it easier to cause unending conflicts. And such conflicts can become worse between different sexes in family members, like father and daughter. For one's expectation from the other is different, and the actions they can take are different.
This study focuses on a father and his daughter, a second grade student, who have different value of expectations due to different background and character. They were in conflict due to dissatisfaction of requests toward each other, and the frequency of such conflicts has recently become increased. This dissertation aims to diagnose the current situation of the relationship between the father and daughter and to improve the sense of intimacy between the two by examining their issues and conducting an art therapy.
Having started with the request by the father, the subject of this study is the father who requested an art therapy and his daughter. Before the actual art therapy, the study conducted a preliminary interview with the mother in order to determine the situation in their family. The art therapy program conducted in this study followed three steps: in the first step, the study focused on determining the types of communication between the father and the daughter and attempting interaction between the two. In the second step, the study conducted actual art therapy programs for the improvement of the sense of intimacy and understanding between the father and the daughter. In the final step, the study conducted programs for forming a positive relationship between the father and the daughter. The art therapy was conducted at a private art study in Seocho-gu, Seoul, from November 2008 to March 2009, a total of 23 sessions each of which lasted 50 minutes.
The result of the study shows that the relation between the father and the daughter, and their sense of intimacy have improved. At first, the father tried to inject his ideas unilaterally to his daughter, and the daughter showed passive attitudes. As the art therapy continued, providing collaborative tasks and opportunities of communication, the father began to respect his daughter’s thoughts, and the daughter also began to express her thoughts more proactively. When the therapy was about to end, her attitude toward the relationship between the father and the daughter has changed proactively, and the father’s understanding of the daughter has also changed. Such changes resulted not only from the diffusive effect of the art therapy through expressions, but also from the effect of the horizontal communication that the art therapy offered through expressions. While the diffusive effect of the art therapy through expressions helped the communication between the two in the early stage of the therapy, the opportunity of the horizontal communication that the art therapy offered helped them to understand and accept each other, resulting in the improvement of the sense of intimacy between the two.
Through this study, it was revealed that the difficulty in the relationship between fathers and daughters in modern society is often caused by the difficulty of communication. The difficulty in the communication between fathers and daughters results: first, from different life experiences, resulting in different ways of understanding each other. This was causing them to produce different expectations and dissatisfaction toward each other; second, from the difficulty of creating opportunities of communication due to their different life styles. Because of busy daily life, the two found it difficult to make time to form an intimate relationship. The art therapy process offered the very opportunity for them to communicate with, and understand, each other. The time for the art therapy was the time only for the father and the daughter, the time when they could focus only on each other, helping them understand each other. This shows that an art therapy can cause positive changes in the relationship between fathers and daughters by making it possible for them to engage in a horizontal interaction in their relationship.