THE THERAPEUTIC EFFECT OF STORIES- LITERARY AND FILMIC REPRESENTATIONS

Abstract

Our paper focuses on the therapeutic effect that storytelling and story creating can have when it comes to dealing with past unresolved trauma, both in and out of therapy. The twist is that in analyzing our “patients” we will not be referring to real entities but to characters belonging to the proposed books/ film adaptations: A Monster Calls (book: Ness, 2011; film: Bayona, 2016), Babadook (book: Kent, 2019; film: Kent, 2016) and A Christmas Carol (book: Dickens, 1844; films: Donner, 1989; Murphy, 2019; Zemeckis, 2009). This factor will not bring, however, any problem in analyzing their so called psychological journeys in the same manner that real people are analyzed due to the fact that, as any fictional character, they have been built to imitate real people, to feel, react and think in the same way that any of us would in the given circumstances. In regards to the theoretical material used in developing these analyses, we have to give credit (among others) to Mister Pat Pernicano. The information he has provided in the two of his books we have consulted in the preparatory stage, Using Trauma-Focused Therapy Stories. Interventions for Therapist, Children and Their Caregiver (2014) and Using Stories, Art and Play in Trauma Informed Treatment. Case Examples and Applications Across the Lifespan (2019), being of great help, even consisting of an explicit guide with steps to follow when documenting a patient’s, in our case a fictional patient’s progress.