The Child-Psychoanalytic Play Interview: A Technique for Studying Thematic Content

Abstract

Child psychoanalysts have long viewed play as a reflection of children's inner lives and have used the themes children represent in play for diagnostic and therapeutic work. Given the central role children's play has for clinical work, few studies have addressed play empirically. This paper presents a technique for studying the thematic content of children's play as it emerges during a play session with a child analyst. We report the steps involved in developing this investigative technique and describe the interobserver agreement among four rates using the technique with videotaped play sessions. Implications for future research using such an approach are discussed.

Psychological testing and the analytically trained child psychologist.

“…Reinvigorating academic interest in psychodynamic child testing is an important goal that might be furthered by renewed efforts toward obtaining ongoing empirical support and normative data for free-response instruments. Such endeavors can draw on both the psychoanalytic and developmental literatures, which offer valid methods for the following: evaluating children's thinking and internal representations based on Rorschach responses (Blatt, Tuber, & Auerbach, 1990; Meyer & Tuber, 1989), interpreting the thematic contents of young children's pretend play (Keren et al, 2005; Marans et al, 1991), discerning defensive style based on response to the Thematic Apperception Test (Cramer, 1991), and assessing the quality and coherence of children's narrative stories (Fonagy & Target, 2002; Main, 2000). In addition, there is substantial evidence that projective testing can serve as an important adjunct to ongoing child psychotherapy in the following ways: elucidating pervasive patterns of defense and dysregulation that arise in multiple settings (Harris et al, 2007), measuring changes in defensive organization during the course of treatment (Cramer & Blatt, 1990), and predicting adjustment in children who have been hospitalized (Tuber, 1983).…”

“…In the evaluation of young children, pretend play is uniquely revealing; despite this, a play observation is rarely included in testing assessments. The child's actions and verbalizations during play provide key diagnostic information (Marans et al, 1991); an inability to engage in symbolic play can reflect developmental disturbance, with serious deficits in ego and relational capacities (Gilmore, 2005; Mayes & Cohen, 1992). Within the psychoanalytic literature, play is seen as a window on the child's inner life and as an inherently development-promoting activity.…”

“…Sandra Russ's extensive research has revealed correlations between children's capacity for richly elaborated, well-organized play and the development of divergent thinking and social understanding (Cordiano, Russ, & Short, 2008; Niec & Russ, 2002; Seja & Russ, 1999). Other studies have focused on the use of play in elaborating the child's mental life via the prevalence of certain thematic contents, such as typical daily routines and caregiver behaviors, or more affectively charged categories, for example, aggression, struggle, and dependency (Cockle, 1993; Keren, Feldman, Namdari-Weinbaum, Spitzer, & Tyano, 2005; Marans et al, 1991).…”

Overcoming “You Can Ask My Mom”: Clinical Arts-Based Perspectives to Include Children Under 12 in Mental Health Research

“…The work of child psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, or art/play-therapists with children uses, necessarily, an interview setting so they have had to develop ways of enabling children to express themselves, especially on sensitive issues like those related to mental health, for example. This has led to a long tradition of such practitioners' use of play and drawings to understand children in psychotherapeutic consultations (Anzieu, 2008;Caldairou-Bessette et al, 2018;Dolto, 1948;Fabre, 1998;Marans et al, 1991;Winnicott, 1971). Clinical practitioners have developed a unique and deeply experience-based culture of trying to understand children through their drawings and play.…”