Hospital Clown Narratives in Pediatric Palliative Care

Hospital Clown Narratives in Pediatric Palliative Care

Santarpia A; Romani-Cesaro M; Simonds C

Journal of Humanistic Psychology

2019

Palliative; pediatrics; narratives

The goal of this qualitative research was to achieve a deeper psychological understanding of professional hospital clown work with hospitalized children during their end-of-life care period. Using a statistical text analysis with a co-occurrence strategy we showed several narrative categories from a clown’s perspective: “Tragic metamorphosis,” “Meditating on the mystery,” “An ultimate poetic atmosphere,” “Interconnectedness and interrelatedness of all things,” “An emotional catalyst,” “The deep need to say goodbye,” “Ethical guidance values.” We will interpret the narratives categories according to humanistic/existential framework as the theoretical base. The clown addresses those aspects of healing that are not well developed in modern Western medicine, the treatment of the whole person. The clown embraces human nature as physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual.

July 2019 List