The Barretstown Experience: A Rite of Passage

Abstract

Barretstown Castle Holiday Camp for seriously ill children may have long-term beneficial effects on children with life-threatening illnesses. The presented evidence suggests that the experience is a contemporary rite of passage. The different stages of separation, transition and reaggregation can be identified. The separation from family and civil society is remarkably complete. Established norms no longer prevail in the transitional phase of liminality. Communitas and I-thou relationships become the mode of interaction. Barretstown added the dimension of Therapeutic Recreation to an American camp experience. The structured sequences of Therapeutic Recreation mediated by caras (councillors) encourage personal change. The Barretstown experience may be a life-enhancing ritual process and an important social experience in chronic severe childhood illnesses.