O Procedimento de Desenhos-Estórias como instrumento de intermediação terapêutica na pré-cirurgia infantil: um estudo qualitativo [The Drawing-and-Story Procedure (D-E) as a tool for therapeutic intermediation in children pre-surgery: a qualitative study]

TRINCA, A. M. T. O Procedimento de Desenhos-Estórias como instrumento de intermediação terapêutica na pré-cirurgia infantil: um estudo qualitativo [The Drawing-and-Story Procedure (D-E) as a tool for therapeutic intermediation in children pre-surgery: a qualitative study]. 2002. 254 p. Doctoral Thesis – Instituto de Psicologia da USP. São Paulo, 2002.Abstract: This is a qualitative study that has used the Drawing-and-Story Procedure (D-E), a technique for a clinical investigation of personality, introduced by Walter Trinca in 1972. This study proposed to introduce a modification in the regular use of such a tool that is now used for therapeutically intermediating children pre-surgery. For this use, the D-E included interviews with children’s mothers or companions, interviews conducted with the children themselves, and clinical observations. All of this formed a brief therapeutic process in which children waiting for surgeries were individually assisted in two or at the most three sessions with a one-week interval between them. Fifteen children, nine boys and six girls, with their surgeries scheduled for up to a month in advance took part in the research. The psychologist sought to help the children identify and overcome emotional difficulties inherent to the pre-surgery situation. The approach to, and interpretation of, clinical material relied on psychoanalytic references. It was observed that: a) the therapeutic use of the D-E allowed the free expression of the children’s emotional status; b) the D-E facilitated free associations prompted by the children’s drawings and sequential stories; c) the associations moved rapidly towards nodal foci of unconscious conflicts; d) children’s anxieties concerned both the surgery issues and past situations, re-inscribed at that current moment; e) the children tended strongly to elaborate their conflicts and reduce their anxieties at the end of the process; f) it was possible to reinforce egoic defenses that were weakened by the pre-surgery situation. The results of this study initially allow the Drawing-and-Story Procedure (D-E) to be presented, in combination with interviews and clinical observations, as a clinically valid tool for a brief therapeutic intermediation in children’s pre-surgery care.