Children and Death—As Seen Through Art and Autobiographies

WITH SO MANY SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS OR SPECULATIONS about the meaning of death to children, it may be strange that this article deals with the expression of direct experiences with death and with recorded sayings of children about death as we find them in autobiographies or in art, in stories written by children, or sayings of young children noted by observers. They shed light on children's reactions to death and their fantasies in different developmental phases.

We have deliberately excluded reports from the professional literature based on the individual treatment or observations on psychopathological situations, where the reaction to a death was the core of a developmental problem and often expressed in acting out or dramatic play. Because of the uniqueness of the times and the observers we have included a few examples of children's sayings from the Hampstead War Nurseries.

The selections from literature, art, observations, and children's work are not intended to be a representative sample. The material is much too rich and varied for that. They are