Playing in and with the Dark: Symbolic Meaning and Psychic Function of the Dark in Neglected and Maltreated Children in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

ABSTRACT

According to our clinical experience, children who were neglected or maltreated at a young age show a peculiarity in psychodynamic play psychotherapy: they often play in and with the dark. How can children who often experience traumatic situations in the dark be so keen to sneak into it to play? As far as we know, no author has pointed out this characteristic of maltreated children’s play, and there is very little literature on the general subject. The purpose of this article is fourfold. Firstly, it aims to explore the symbolic value that the dark might have for these children. Secondly, it aims to describe some typical psychological mechanisms of the psychic functioning of traumatized children, which may explain why the dark has become a useful play space for them. We suggest that darkness became a transitional space in which they can ignore the environment to avoid their imagination being hampered by the constraints of physical reality. Thirdly, the article elaborates on the technical characteristics and counter-transference issues related to playing in the dark. Fourthly, it uses several examples to illustrate how playing in the dark unfolds, and how the dark can become a decisive factor in the play of traumatized children.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Institut universitaire Jeunes en difficulté and the DEA Program of the Foundation House of Human Sciences for their financial support, which made this article possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Considering that the language and the culture of the children and the therapists in the article is French, a French dictionary was used to define “darkness”.

2. The comment in parentheses is ours.

3. The cases of Ruth and Noah were presented in another article to illustrate the impact of early relational trauma on children’s play: Terradas et al. (submitted). Episodic experiences of child physical abuse, early relational trauma and post-traumatic play: Theoretical considerations and clinical illustrations.

4. We kept the actual name that Ruth gave the baby. “Amada” means “beloved” in Spanish, though it was highly unlikely that Ruth, being francophone, knew this.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Miguel M. Terradas

Miguel M. Terradas, Ph.D., Clinical psychologist. Professor, Department of Psychology, Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Associate researcher, Institute universitaire Jeunes en difficulté. Professor Terradas is interested in the mother-child relationship in the context of early relational trauma and the impact of this kind of trauma on the child's mentalizing capacity and ability to play. He has contributed to the development of a mentalization-based intervention for childcare workers in Youth Protection Services and Child Psychiatry.

Antoine Asselin

Antoine Asselin, B.A., Doctoral student, Child, Adolescent and Parents' Clinical Psychology Program, Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. His doctoral dissertation concerns the play of children who have experienced early relational trauma.

Didier Drieu

Didier Drieu, Ph.D., Clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, and family and group therapist. Professor of child and adolescent psychopathology, Université de Rouen-Normandie, France. Director, Human and Social Sciences Training and Research Unit. Professor Drieu is interested in risk-taking and dependency behaviors of vulnerable adolescents and in the group dimensions of these processes (traumatic links, mentalization difficulties).