title: When children tell stories: developmental considerations.
abstract: Although psychoanalysts welcome children's story creations in the clinical setting, psychoanalytic investigators have given them limited attention. This author examined stories that 40 children, aged 8 to 14, narrated to the Thematic Apperception Test blank card presented in psychological evaluation. The stories depicted playful use of reality as a new development; specific dynamic factors influencing thematic content; humor in latency and self-referencing in (pre-)adolescence as age-specific characteristics. The findings further our understanding of conscious fantasy.
authors.affiliation: Washington Center for Psychoanalysis, Washington, DC. The Precursors Study, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, USA. ipgraves24@verizon.net
authors.forename: Pirkko L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Graves
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D033262:Narration; D012660:Semantics; D014705:Verbal Behavior