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.

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