설화를 통한 치유와 성장 - 한부모 가정 아동 사례를 중심으로 -

Abstract

Literary works provide the information and cognitive systems required to accurately identify psychological issues and contain a wide range of figurational and cognitive elements that can be useful for psychological problem solving. That is, literature is an excellent tool for psychiatric counseling and therapy. All humans live their lives on the basis of an in-depth “self-epic” and a person is likely to experience difficulty if there is a problem with his or her “self-epic”. The key principle of literary therapy is to seek a fundamental treatment for life by turning a unhealthy inner epic narrative into a healthy one. The discussion in this paper focuses on describing a method to enhance the therapeutic effect of counseling child patients. The goal of the study is to enable child patients to understand and to use various expressions in tales as a prototype story equipped with the basic structure and form of an epic. This study is based on data collected from a 12-session program, conducted for 3 months, with lower-grade elementary school children from single-parent families in South Korea. The primary goal of the counseling program was to improve the self-esteem of children from single-parent families. The son and daughter epic test was used as a preliminary test along with an analysis of each child's epic patterns. Based on the results of the preliminary analyses, suitable tales were selected and a unique counseling program was developed following a step-by-step approach for each child. Furthermore, the children were monitored for reactions and change patterns with regard to their response to the program. The program was planned and implemented with an emphasis on ‘the son and daughter epic test and change in self-awareness’. From this study, some meaningful results were obtained in terms of improving self-esteem through changes in self-awareness and understanding in children who participated in the program.