The sick child and his relationship with doctors

This article presents the main features about the relationship between the child patient and his doctor. As with adult so with child, the disease is part of his life. The adult disease is an epiphenomenon while in case of a child, it is felt differently by him and his family. Child illness introduces new character in a child's life, the doctor with whom he must communicate and establish a new type of relationship. In some cases, the child must even get separated from his family to enter a new, unknown environment which is the hospital.

The "doctor-child "relation has an ambiguous character, which we can highlight through the "draw test "or "the doctor dc game ". In these drawings-value projective test, the doctor is characterized by three elements: the sober suit, hat, black bag. They are accessories attributes of the prestige and authority that embodies doctor. The general appearance is ceremonial, as a dramatization of the medical visit, in terms of the sick child representations.

The second character from the child's drawing-test is the mother, which can be presented in three situations: a) a traumatic and generating anxiety relationship,

b) mother and doctor makes a couple of which the child feels connected,

c) the "parent -doctor couple may be perceived as frustrating; in the sense that the doctor may substitute mother.

In the case of the doctor's game the doctor presents himself in front of the child under three functional aspects: paternal role, maternal role, sexual function.

The paternal role of the doctor is a character that has all the features of paternal power and inspires feelings of fear and obedience of the child. In this case the doctor is experienced as an aggressive character, representing a supreme power.

Maternal role is reduced to the dedicated nurse, protective and secure for the child.

Sexual function is obvious. In psychoanalytic terms, the doctor has a symbolic role fault, dangerous and castrated by the fact that he has the right to see and touch "zones " of the body.