Siblings’ experience through the Free Association Narrative Interview (FANI). Peliminary findings

Exploring subjectivity, psychosocial studies often refer to the psychoanalytic paradigm, rather than to discursive psychology, and to qualitative research (Wetherell, 2008). This study aims to analyse the sibling bond (Kaës, 2008; Sommantico, 2012) in case of disability (Korff-Sausse, 2006), supposing a co-constructed dimension on a double level: the intrapsychic functioning (desires, defences, object relations), and the discourse about being siblings, mediated by the social and cultural context. Ten siblings were recruited in care or rehabilitative structures to participate in the study (20-35 years; 5 males, 5 females). According to the methodology of the Free Association Narrative Interview (Hollway, Jefferson, 2013; Garfield, Reavey, Kotecha, 2010; see next section), in-depth interviews with semi-structured questions were used to encourage participants to remember specific life events with high emotional significance. The defended subject appears in the interview, and through the interviewed-interviewer relationship, letting desires and defenses emerge. Preliminary findings, resulting from the analysis of two siblings’ FANI, confirm theoretical hypothesis (Coles, 2006; Mitchell, 2003), as well as qualitative (Scelles, 1997; Young, Frosh, 2010) and quantitative previous research (Valtolina, 2004). The presence of a sibling represents an attack to the sense of uniqueness, thus the subjective positioning into the family life depends on one’s own necessity of becoming different from the sibling, of creating self-uniqueness. Particularly, the presence of a disabled sibling seems to have a specific impact on this identification/differentiation process, and also to inhibit the expression of ‘negative’ feelings (i.e. envy, jealousy). If confirmed by the analysis of the other interviews, these findings can contribute to implement, improve and promote intervention programs for siblings’s psychosocial wellbeing.