In the last 1-2 years at most Waldorf schools, students are required to complete a "senior project." It's a way for students to explore and idea of their choice, any idea, ANY field of study. It can be academic, artistic, musical, theatrical, scientific, poetic.... The project must include a written paper, an artistic component, documented research, job-shadowing, interviews, community service, and a public presentation.
It may have seemed like a big deal back in 11th grade, but I can't even believe how happy I am to have gotten the chance to explore an idea of mine in such depth. I actually really want to continue this. I read my paper today, following some strange urge, and I was astounded to see my introductory quote by Paracelsus. Paracelsus is a historically known alchemist, physician, occultist, astrologer, botanist etc etc... and some very popular alternative-medicine schools in Germany are named after him. I've been considering switching to one of them. So I open my paper, and BAM, his name hits me.. maybe it's a sign ;)
Healing Through Comfort: Exploring the Healing Qualities of Waldorf Dolls
"The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind
-Philipu Aureolus Paracelsus
For as long as I can remember, the human body has been an object of my fascination. It seems that simultaneously, hundreds of questions and possible answers flicker through my mind when I consider the body's delicate system. In the end, all of my thoughts lead to the question of healing. What does it mean for a sick body to heal? How are the mind and body connected in sickness and in health? As the human is more than just a functioning machine, I find that it is essential to consider comfort of the soul as a factor in healing. I have always been interested in medicine, dolls and in children, and thought that it would be interesting to explore a possible correlation between them. After completing extensive research, conducting interviews, and volunteering at various organizations, I have formed a question that has become the basis of my senior project: How do dolls provide comfort to sick children and how can they influence their healing?
Physical healing is influenced by the wellbeing of the mind and the soul. As children are generally more perceptive and subconsciously aware of their surroundings, their health is more dramatically affected by their experiences. [Neuschütz] It is my hypothesis that soft dolls, as a common plaything for young children, can influence healing by providing a form of comfort, an essential factor in regaining health.
To understand how a doll can provide comfort, we first must come to understand the relationship that a doll and a child share. A doll is an object that a child can connect with, because of its similarity to the child itself. A child is able to understand a certain mirror-like quality in a doll, and uses the doll as a tool to understand the ways of life. [Neuschütz] This connection creates a strong sense of trust between the child and the doll, making the doll a perfect link in providing children with comfort.
Comfort is considered a necessity to all living beings, but especially in sick children. According to the National Cancer Society, "In the United States in 2007, approximately 10,400 children under age 15 were diagnosed with cancer." The causes and medical cures of childhood cancer and other illnesses remain unknown or vague, but the opportunities for finding cures and other means of healing are limitless. I am particularly interested in how dolls (and teddy bears) provide healing through comfort.
In the "Old Days," when Mother still wore an apron around the house, children were not hastily ushered to the emergency room or forced to swallow doses of highly-chemical "medicines." They were cuddled, read to, and left to rest in their beds with their favorite doll or teddy bear until they recovered. Of course a doll or a stuffed animal can not treat for infection, bandage wounds, or eliminate cancer, but it can provide a source of comfort to the child.
Children who are sick often experience fear, uncertainty, and self-doubt, especially if they encounter hospitals. Fear causes a rush of adrenaline and cortisol to be pumped through the blood stream, which, in high levels, can lead to elevated blood pressure, elevated body temperature, muscle tension, adrenal fatigue, anxiety and panic attacks. [McPeck] These side effects can interfere with healing, and typically do more damage to the already frail system. When the body is under so much stress, the immune system deviates from its normal practice of scanning the body for free radicals (These are unstable molecules that are missing an electron, that zoom around the body in search of an electron to attach to. They often latch on to healthy cells and "steal" their electrons, causing cell death or abnormality, which can lead to malignant tumors.)[Anonymous 4] This creates even more stress for the body, less likelihood that it will recover. Fear can send the body into a downward-spiraling, positive feedback loop. [Lam]
Despite its negative impact on the immune system, on the conscience and on one's general well being, fear can easily be alleviated. The best way to comfort a sick and scared child is to provide direct maternal or paternal contact: hugging or holding the child. Due to the constant bustle of life, however, parents are not always able to be there for their children. This is where an item of comfort comes into play. Dolls, teddy bears and stuffed animals are commonly used to pacify sick, sad or scared children. Dolls come in various styles, materials and sizes, and each have a different effect on children. The softer and cuddlier a toy is, the more comfort it provides to children, because they are reminded of how their parents feel. [Neuschütz]
When babies first encounter their parents, and their parents give the first nurturing cuddle, they develop a memory of something that gave comfort, protection and attention. When the body is in a situation of comfort and safety, serotonin and dopamine are released into the system, giving the body a signal, "I am happy." This feeling of "comfort" can be accessed when the body experiences similar stimulation. [Quélen] Soft dolls and teddy bears are good at mimicking the way parents feel: soft, snuggly, warm. When children experience fear, pain, or sadness, holding a bear or a doll can help them find comfort by reawakening the memory of their parents, thereby stimulating the release of "feel-good" hormones.[Neuschütz, Lakeman]
For thousands of years, dolls have been used as an item of comfort for children. Historians speculate that the first dolls originated around 2000 B.C. in ancient Egypt. The first dolls were made of wood, fur, corn husk, and other natural materials. They had simple features, and were relatively proportional to the human anatomy. During the Greco-Roman era, children from wealthy families were the receivers of the first clay dolls. As the industrial revolution of Europe flourished, dolls shifted from being made of natural materials, with a comforting, organic feel, to perfected, porcelain beauties that were heirlooms instead of playthings. [Anything Goes]With the invention of plastic in 1855 by Alexander Parkes [Juhász], unbreakable dolls were produced.
This turning point led to many other "realistic" inventions of the doll, such as eyes that could open and shut, and voice boxes that would allow the doll to cry or talk. Dolls and other toys became mass-produced, lost their quality of uniqueness, and were often made of potentially harmful materials.
"The manufacturing of plastics often creates large quantities of toxic chemical pollutants such as dioxin, hydrochloric acid, and vinyl chloride.
This poses severe health risks to humans during the PVC life cycle. These toxins can produce severe illness like cancer, diabetes, neurological damage, reproductive and birth defects." [Lenntech]
Plastic dolls became ideal because of their low cost, virtual indestructibility and catchy appeal. As time progressed, new styles of dolls emerged, such as "Cabbage Patch Dolls,"
"Barbie," and "BabyBorn." Synthetic materials became the foundation for toys that might have been intended to bring children feelings of comfort, or to stimulate role-play.
Different types of dolls provide different kinds and different levels of comfort. Of all the dolls there are, I find "Waldorf Dolls" to be the most comforting. The Anthroposophical founder, Rudolf Steiner, believed that child-play should revolve around open-ended toys, made of natural materials, to allow for each child's full development of the senses. The "trademark" toy based on his philosophy is the Waldorf Doll. Steiner believed that a doll should represent the human without being too definitive. It is made of 100% natural materials: organic cotton dyed with plant-based dyes, and real sheep's wool for stuffing and hair. It is always created by hand. The doll has simple, neutral features, enabling the child to use his or her imagination to determine the doll's mood. Reciprocally, the doll provides comfort to the child without forcing a false mood or facial gesture upon the child. Would a child really be comforted or relieved of fear, if his or her doll was always staring blankly at them?
Dolls aren't meant to be lifeless, soulless entities of plastic that preach what humans should look or feel like. If they are to play the role of comforter and protector, as well as forgiving companion, then wouldn't they be made to be as soft, natural, and human-like as possible? A Waldorf doll strives to bring freedom, imagination, warmth and comfort to a child. Maricristin Sealy, a Waldorfdoll maker states:
"They are real 'child dolls' not because they mimic exactly the features and form of an individual as many of the tough plastic toys available today try to do, but because they reflect the inner softness and warmth both of their maker and their owner." [Sealy]
Unlike dolls that are purely for a child's entertainment, Waldorf dolls play a miraculous two-way role in a child's life. When a child experiences fear, sadness, or sickness, he or she can hold the doll, and feel the warmth of the natural materials that let the doll provide comfort. When the child is healthy, happy and balanced, the doll becomes his or her companion or baby. The child can then come full circle and take care of the doll, pretend that the doll is sick or sad, and can give the doll comfort. [Marie, Neuschütz, Sealy,]
A Waldorf doll is constructed to be human-like from the inside out. The doll-making process itself is therapeutic. One begins by rolling all-natural sheep's wool into balls and rods for the hands, feet, and limbs. The wool is initially rolled extremely tightly, and then eventually loosely, so that the ball will resemble the human anatomy. If you squeeze a human hand, you will feel the hard bones and tendons; and when you release some of the pressure, you feel the fat and soft tissue just above them; and when you are hardly touching the hand, you feel the softness and smoothness of the skin. Similarly, the core and head of a Waldorf doll are rolled so that they are similar to the human in hardness and softness. The skin of a Waldorf doll is made of soft, cotton jersey, in a variety of skin tones. The softness of the skin is pleasant to touch, and quite durable. The dolls indicate the human form without being either artificial or forced. They are comforting and soft, and contain the spirit of the doll-maker, and the child who possess it.
Doll-maker Orit Dotan shares his views on Waldorf Dolls:
"I believe Waldorf dolls are bearing healing forces for the child. The love and warmth which is involved in the creation of these kinds of dolls streams to the doll in the process of creating and the child can feel it. I can tell you from my experience that hyperactive children who did not sleep well began to sleep all night when their mothers created a Waldorf doll for them. Also the process of creating these dolls is therapeutic for the adults, as it is a process that requires soul forces which are different from any other creation I know...and forces the creator to be in touch more deeply with their own inner powers." [Anonymous 5.]
The essential question of my project has become: Of all the dolls; porcelain, plastic, Cabbage Patch, Barbies and Waldorf dolls, which would be the most comforting doll to give to a sick child? Which of these dolls would be most conducive to healing?
I believe that Waldorf Dolls are the most comforting. All other dolls have features that I think would not help to reduce the fear or pain in a sick child's life. Cabbage Patch dolls, for instance, have massive, hard-plastic heads, with enormous glaring eyes, and a disproportionately squashy body. Barbies have no softness or "give" to them at all, certainly not the doll to hug in a moment of need. Porcelain dolls are too delicate to play with, and are typically molded after older girls. I also believe that when a child is in a situation of fear, pain, sadness or discomfort, he or she will seek comfort. If a sick child was presented with a variety of dolls, I would hypothesize that he or she would choose the most comforting.
A German Waldorf doll-maker, Giselda Christina Santen, comments on a child's ability to choose comfort for him or herself (translated into English):
"Here children are very particular what concerns their toys. If they have the choice, they take everything they can access, but the favorite doll or stuffed animal has a special place in the life of the child. These friends were chosen deliberately, according to the rules that only the child knows. For parents it is sometimes difficult to understand. Why just this colorful bear?…But kids know what it is for--even if we can not understand it always. A doll is not necessarily the image of a person we can fully comply with, because just like the colorful bear, the doll satisfies simple characteristic features which distinguish it from a different creature. A head with a soft body, arms and legs are usually sufficient for a child to feel affection. Affection arises when one knows what one sees, feels, hears, smells or tastes like-- or if all our senses be touched pleasant. "
I posed a questionnaire to my 16 classmates to find out about the types of dolls that they had when they were younger, and whether or not they found them comforting. Those who had plastic dolls, Barbies and American Girl Dolls experienced little comfort from their dolls when they were sick, sad or scared. Those who had teddy bears, soft dolls, and Waldorf dolls, however, claimed that their dolls were comforting and helped them feel better.
As well as interviewing many people about their dolls and their memories of experiences with their dolls, I have had the opportunity to work with sick children at an organization called HUGS: Help and Understanding Group Support for Hawaii's Seriously Ill Children and Their Families. I observed how the children played with dolls, and whether they demonstrated experiencing any comfort from them. One girl that I worked with was playing with a plastic baby doll. She seemed very unattached and not compassionate towards the doll, often ignoring it or treating it like a mundane piece of plastic. She showed much more emotion and care to a stuffed, plush dog, however, and held it closely to her.
I also had the opportunity to spend a morning observing the Waldorf kindergarteners in the Early Childhood's Kukui class. The children ranged between the ages of two and four. Several of the children actively played with the Waldorf dolls that were provided. One boy, who had separation anxiety, clutched a doll to his chest the entire time, and called it his "baby." Another girl took the doll from him when he wasn't looking, and for five minutes he ran around the room in hysterics, crying for his "baby." He was instantly pacified and comforted when he found it again. An instance of "seeking comfort" arose when a girl began to cry. The teacher didn't hug or hold her, and there were no dolls to play with, so she ran to a corner of the room where the walls were padded with down-comforter-style pillows, and curled up there. It was interesting to observe children actively seek comfort.
My hypothesis is that the softer and more natural a doll is, the more comfort and healing it will provide to children; and that children who experience fear, pain, sickness, or sadness will choose a doll that is most comforting to them. The Waldorf doll provides the most organic connection between child and comfort, supporting neither synthetic, toxic materials, nor a simulated smile. It supports the healing process by providing comfort, where the body releases positive hormones such as serotonin and dopamine, that stimulate immune function. [Bom] Waldorf dolls are an asset in the healing process of children and adults alike, providing the comfort that is necessary to heal.
"I think they are so healing (the dolls), there is some piece of childhood they are holding on to and at the same time empowering to the own. I think they are beautiful." [Christina]
-Lauri of Vancouver
Yes indeed, keep it up!
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