Children’s imaginative-reflective production in clinical-narrative workshops

Abstract

The work focuses on the subjective variable of learning: it aims at identifying psychic transformations in six children within a story-mediated clinical setting (narrative workshop). Field work was conducted in a public school, with children aged six and seven characterized by an unfavorable pedagogical prognosis. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of children’s discursive production was analyzed using a software tool, with results showing an increase in discursive production throughout the narrative workshops and a decreasing need for the coordinating team’s participation. Nevertheless, a decreasing trend in imaginative-reflective production was observed, driving the team to focus the analysis on that dimension and to attempt at explaining its possible causes.

Keywords:
psychoanalytic clinic; children; narrative workshop; imaginative-reflective processes