The colour field paintings of the American abstract expressionist Mark Rothko that he called « human dramas » have profoundly moved many viewers. In his sixties a long-standing project was realized when he showed these works in special rooms and even in a chapel. The author of this article uses Transference Focused Psychotherapy (tfp) based on attachmentand object-relations theories in seeking to understand Rothko's artworks. His early traumatic childhood may have led to primary defence mechanisms that we probably see and feel in the countertransference through projective identification. Therefore we can understand why some people even cry when seeing his colour field work.

Keywords: abstract art, countertransference, object relations, Rothko, tfp, splitting