This clinical psychoanalytical qualitative study aimed to investigate the fantasies of bereaved children - due to the death of one or both of the parents - and the way these fantasies act in the grief process. Five case-studies were carried out, with boys and girls, from three to five years old, bereaved due to death of father and/or mother, who had been referred to psychotherapy. As investigation resource, interviews were made with the survivor parent or person responsible for the child, a family interview, play sessions with the child and the Drawing-Story Test. The fantasies that were identified were: Annihilation; Guilt; Castration; Omnipotence; Rejection; Retaliation, Idealization and non-idealization of lost object, Aggressiveness; Identification with lost object, Denial of loss, Regression; Reparation and Repetition of the loss situation. There were also indicated feelings, behaviors and symptoms, by the expression of fantasies. The construction of these fantasies was related to: psychosexual and cognitive development stage, ego functioning, surrounding conditions related to the death and family dynamics. Among these factors, those that facilitate or jeopardize the grief process were identified. The fantasies reflect the process of grief work and their awareness allows the feelings, behaviors and symptoms understanding and they are associated to the grief processes.
child; fantasy; grief; death
