Abstract
Grigoris Abatzoglou
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Listening to the others: biography and autobiography in psychotherapeutic sessions with children
Psychotherapy consists of a sequence of organized meetings in a precise context and with a defined aim. This therapeutic process tends to the creation, at the same time, of an intimate and personal autobiography by the patient and to the construction of a confidential biography of the patient by the therapist. This kind of dynamic interaction may also be considered as an example of a special kind of oral history and historical research, as a text in constant evolution based on a working progress on testimony, narration, mnemonic traces and memory. The therapeutic work with children and their families confronts us to the inter-generational dimension of their history and to aspects of generational disarray and confusion in their history. The therapeutic task may be summarized as a complex issue of how a child becomes a subject of its own history.
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