Yasuko Inoue
Archives of Sandplay Therapy, Vol.26(No.1) 31-40, Oct, 2013 Peer-reviewedCorresponding author
This study of play therapy with a third-grade girl, who is troubled by truancy and urophobia, is from the viewpoint of autonomy of the unconscious. The girl had difficulty expressing herself, a fear of adults, and weak eyesight. In play therapy, she expressed her internal problems by drawing pictures and using clay to make a one-eyed rabbit as a projection of her self-image, and the eyeball of an alien as a symbol of her fear. “Blood” representing the “water of life” coming from the destroyed eyeball of the alien was reproduced as the right eye of her rabbit. In this manner, imaginative play with a therapist prompted the expression of autonomous images; e.g. through the image of “water of life”, she could restore her body image and childlike vigor. Thus, autonomy of the unconscious can restore connections with others and the universe, and renew the life force.