Creative Writing as Play Therapy

"Over the past year, we have been working closely with colleagues here at Boston College to develop a psychologically rich, humanities-informed Creative Writing Master's Program oriented toward professionals and clinicians who want to hone their craft as writers while deepening their understanding of the human psyche. The idea behind this undertaking is simple: Great writing and great thinking go hand in hand, and creative writing is a fundamentally psychological endeavor."

"For Freud, of course, the word "fantasy" does not carry the pejorative connotation that it often does for us. Our fantasies are an important part of our mental life and we neglect or disavow them at our peril. It is better, Freud thinks, to cultivate our fantasies-recognizing them always as such and yet nevertheless taking them seriously-in order to do something productive with them. This allows us to nurture our inner child-an aspect of ourselves"

"In "Creative Writing and Day- Dreaming," Freud likens the exertions of an author toward his craft to the efforts of a child at play. Noting that "The opposite of play is not what is serious but what is real," he insists that the creative writer is doing something akin to the child in creating a fantasy world, one he takes seriously and invests himself in even though he recognizes it as at odds with reality."

Creative writing functions as a psychological practice that often provides therapeutic benefits by inviting fantasizing and play. A program at Boston College integrates creative writing with psychological and humanities perspectives for professionals and clinicians to refine craft and deepen understanding of the human psyche. Psychoanalytic thought compares creative exertion to childhood play, emphasizing that play opposes the real rather than the serious. Fantasy is characterized as an essential component of mental life that should be cultivated and acknowledged, not disavowed. Cultivating fantasies and engaging the inner child allow writers to productively channel imagination into creative work.

Read at Psychology Today