BRENTAN, C. C. A criatividade de crianças asmáticas [The asthmatic childrens creativity]. Master’s Dissertation – Instituto de Psicologia da USP. São Paulo (SP), 2014.
Available on: <https://www.readcube.com/articles/10.11606/d.47.2014.tde-09032015-121651>
The present study has evaluated the creativity expression of children with asthma, seeking to relate it to aspects of their personality. There is a suspicion that some of these aspects inhibit the expression of these children’s creativity. Asthma is a good example of psychosomatic illness. References point to the observation of atypical functioning of somatic patients’ psychic apparatus, described as a functional deficiency of the ghostly activities related to imagination and symbolic expression. In this context, the study’s goal is to understand the relationship between the personality dynamics and the asthmatic children’s creativity. There was a qualitative research method. The sample consisted of a four children group, aged 7-10 years, with a diagnosis of moderate or severe bronchial asthma. The field research was performed with children who have been treated at the pediatric pulmonology department at Instituto da Criança do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo. First, a consent form was submitted to the parents. Then, there was a semi-structured interview with the parents and two meetings with each child, dedicated to the Drawing-and-Story Procedure and the Children’s Creativity Figural Test, ending with a feedback interview with parents and child and totalizing four meetings with each research subject. Two distinct concepts of creativity were addressed in this study: creativity referred to Winnicott’s theory, theory chosen to make the psychological reading of the research subjects, and creativity referred to Test of Creativity Figural Child. A result of the research is that it was not possible to find a psychological profile of the asthmatic children as the four children in the sample had very peculiar aspects of personality, with peculiarities in the expressions of their creativity as well. On the other hand, there was observed an individual relationship of each child’s personality with the expression of their creativity, reasonably allowing a comparison between them. The study found that, in general, asthmatic children can express their creativity, not confirming previous studies related to psychosomatics. Moreover, this research has hinted that an individual who healthily experiences the potential space could present a perceived alignment between both creativity concepts addressed in the study.