Drawing-In-Relation: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Preschoolers’ Representations Across Family and School

This study examines how preschool-aged children represent their family and school experiences through their drawings and early verbal narratives. Using a psychoanalytically informed framework, children’s family and school drawings were analyzed alongside their spontaneous narratives, with the material situated within the relational field of the research encounter. Across twelve clinical cases, omissions, distortions, and affect-laden details suggested ways in which children employ defensive strategies, idealizations, and early identifications when depicting family dynamics and positioning themselves in the school context. Particular attention is given to clinical indications that can be read in relation to the paternal function – its presence, symbolic absence, or collapse – and to how these configurations appear to be associated with the child’s emerging autonomy and engagement in school. The findings underscore the clinical significance of attending to co-constructed symbolic productions in early childhood.