Work with children who were bereaved during the Naples earthquake: An offer of containment

Abstract

After the Naples earthquake in November 1980 some therapeutic interactions were made available to hospitalized bereaved children and their families. The paper describes the work undertaken by two psychologists with two parent–child couples in the wards and corridors of a Neapolitan hospital. Gabriella, four-years-old, was hospitalized with her father. Her mother, brother and maternal grandparents had died in the earthquake. Gabriella had lost the sight of one eye and had suffered serious head injuries. Mina, three-years-old, her face, arms and legs badly damaged, had lost her eight-year-old sister, and was hospitalized with her parents and her little brother at the time of the intervention. She had previously been separated for one month from the other members of her family, hearing no news about them. The paper describes the remarkable use the children made of the short-term help offered to them in order to work through some of their traumatic experiences. Parents were helped both directly and indirectly by the intervention.

Keywords:

• Earthquake
• therapeutic interactions
• hospital work
• trauma
• denial
• manic defences