When children tell stories: developmental considerations

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.