Tales of fiction in narrative medicine

Introduction The research concerns tales of fiction created by the patients of the Children’s Hospital of Parma. The goals are: 1) observing the thematic and structural elements of the texts and the modalities of projection, identification and symbolisation; 2) examining the defensive and reparative strategies; 3) finding hints to improve the subjective experience of the hospital stay. Method The study has been divided into two sections. In the first section each child produced two oral stories starting from stimulus pictures, some of which related to the cure, whilst the others were neutral. The author used random images in the first of the two stories and selected images in the other one. In the second section the child created his oral story freely and without any stimulus. All the tales have been recorded and transcribed. The analysis of texts, qualitative and inspired to semiotic and psychodynamic perspectives, referred to superficial aspects (thematic and formal-structural) and deeper aspects (projection, identification, symbolisation, defences, activation of thinking, reparation). Outcomes and conclusions The outcomes gathered from observing the performances of the children and their stories have demonstrated that fantasy and creativity help the subjects to express their emotions and pains in a projective way. They also have proved that identification, symbolisation and defences work differently, according to the type of story. The results are independent from the ages of the patients, their pathologies and the duration of the recovery. In order to help the children with elaboration of their emotions in a gradual way, the narrative activity is now organised to achieve successful results starting with a free tale followed by one with stimulus pictures chosen by the child.