Children’s Grief and Creativity: The Experience of Losing a Sibling
Open Access
- 1 March 2018
- journal article
- research article
- Published by FapUNIFESP (SciELO) in Psico-USF
- Vol. 23 (1), 25-36
- https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-82712018230103
Abstract
When children lose one of their siblings, they seek their parents’ emotional support. However, because their parents also feel the loss of one of their children, they cannot provide adequate emotional support for the living ones. Consequently, children have difficulty mourning that loss. This study aims to understand the psychodynamics of children who lost a sibling. The research involved three children, two boys at the age of 11 and 12, and a girl at the age of eight. Individual sessions were conducted to apply the House-Tree-Person Test (HTP) and the Fables Test with the children. Family environments were fragile, driving participants to suppress their feelings and develop symptoms such as learning disability, fear of death, psychosomatic symptoms, dependency, and difficulty in the symbolization process. To express their grief, children need to use their creativity, with the aid of an external environment that offers holding. Such setting allows them to express anguish and anxiety, and to resume their emotional development, despite the difficulties.Keywords
This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit:
- Relação fraterna: constituição do sujeito e formação do laço socialPsicologia USP, 2011
- Morte repentina de genitores e luto infantil: uma revisão da literatura em periódicos científicos brasileirosInteração em Psicologia, 2011
- Peer Relationships of Bereaved Siblings and Comparison Classmates After a Child's Death from Cancer*Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 2011
- Strengthening classroom emotional support for children following a family member’s deathSchool Psychology International, 2011
- Supporting Children's Grief within an Adult and Pediatric Palliative Care ProgramThe Journal of Supportive Oncology, 2011
- Promoting the Adjustment of Parentally Bereaved ChildrenJournal of Mental Health Counseling, 2011
- Jungian family sandplay with bereaved children: Implications for play therapists.International Journal of Play Therapy, 2009
- Life is like the SeasonsChildhood Education, 2004
- Filhos de dependentes químicos com fatores de risco bio-psicossociais: necessitam de um olhar especial?Archives of Clinical Psychiatry (São Paulo), 2004