Horror and aggression in children’s creative writing: implications for bibliotherapy and child development

Abstract

This article examines themes of horror and aggression in five stories written in two children's creative writing courses in Finland. A case study method was used. The data for studying children's creative writing were collected at the Päätalo Institute and a hospital school at Oulu in spring 2000. Children's stories provide material externalized from the subconscious, and can be interpreted from a depth-psychological point of view. Sigmund Freud's understanding of dreams as manifestations of subconscious fears and hopes acquires a new form in the horror stories children write. The child works his or her activated energy charge through manipulating the dream-like and violent elements in stories in a controlled manner: by writing. On the basis of my study, literature, creative writing and bibliotherapy offer a child or a young person a means for working out, at both conscious and subconscious levels, matters relating to the present stage of his or her development and current life condition. ARTICLE HISTORY

We Need Stories and Bibliotherapy Offers One Solution to Developmental Issues

“…The objective of this short Opinion writing is a modest demand for scientific renewal of the early phase of my doctoral research [3] and my academic writings after that until 2019. Bibliotherapy in an educational context for children and adolescents is a resource that is not enough well known among teachers.…”