ABSTRACT
Studies of family dynamics in multigenerational households from an object relations perspective on households complying with the principles of filial piety are scarce. Therefore, this chapter serves as an initial investigation into this area. We offer a short discussion of the literature addressing multigenerational relationships from a sociological perspective and adopt Poehlmann's (2003) attachment perspective to examine intergenerational dynamics for three vignettes presented in this chapter. We discuss the presented therapeutic work from a psychoanalytic and object relations theory perspective to examine how the role of grandparents may influence the children and the parent-child relationship. This chapter concludes that the quality of their object relations and the cultural presence of filial piety determined children's response to loss. In all three cases, the children used art-making processes to form symbols which helped them come to terms with fraught family relationships, absence, separation, and loss.
