Abstract

This research paper, entitled "L'imaginaire et la réalité des jeunes de la rue à travers la thérapie par l'art dramatique", comprises a historical/theoretical analysis supporting a construction research. The research involved 34 young co-researchers (as well as 17 other participants of whom 16 could not be found to sign the consent form and one who chose not to sign it) in 40 workshops based on naturalistic-ethnographic and narrative approaches. In some cases, their companion-animals also attended. During workshops participants chose various creative tools including mime, improvisation/role-play, dance/movement, mental imagery, face painting, poetry and collage. Their involvement, along with our field observations, suggest a positive answer to the principal research question: Is dramatherapy, along with mental imagery and animal-assisted therapies, adaptable in an efficient way to the needs of youth on the street? The answer to most of the subsidiary questions is also positive. These addressed: the relevance of these therapeutic approaches for facilitating understanding of the outlook and attitudes of youth on the street; the communicating of past traumatic events; the emergence of suppressed or repressed emotions; as well as depressed or suicidal ideation; and their potential for, if the case arose, defusing violent impulses. A decrease of violent impulses was not observed. This may have been due to infrequent workshop attendance of young people with this type of difficulty. As co-researchers, young people on the street explored alternative paths to institutional violence and running away, shared their vision of society, their daily problems and their quest for happiness. Photographs of a collage, face paintings and young people with their animal-companions appear at the end of the paper.