Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A collection of papers which describe a different theoretical perspective of the language of art in art therapy. The text explains how, through an understanding of non-verbal communication, teachers and psychologists can work more successfully with handicapped or troubled children.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface to the 1999 Edition (p. ix)
• Editors' Note (p. xiii)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• Chapter 1 Art versus Language (separate Development during Childhood) (p. 7)
• Chapter 2 Art Therapy as a Container (p. 23)
• References (p. 38)
• Chapter 3 Unusual Drawing Development in Children: What Does It Reveal about Children's Art? (p. 39)
• Chapter 4 The Cat, the Fish, the Man, and the Bird: or How to Be a Nothing. Illness Behaviour in Children; the Case Study of a 10-Year-Old Girl (p. 54)
• Chapter 5 Control, Uncontrol, Order, and Chaos: Working with Children with Intestinal Motility Problems (p. 72)
• Chapter 6 Working with Cases of Child Sexual Abuse (p. 89)
• Chapter 7 A Family Centre: a Structural Family Therapy Approach (p. 115)
• Chapter 8 Reflections and Shadows: an Exploration of the World of the Rejected Girl (p. 131)
• References (p. 159)
• Chapter 9 Images and Integration: Art Therapy in a Multi-Cultural School (p. 161)
• Chapter 10 'I Show You': Children in Art Therapy (p. 199)
• Name Index (p. 217)
• Subject Index (p. 220)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Case and Dalley have assembled papers by ten art therapists, each of whom works as part of a child-care team in the major health, education, and social service agencies in England. Each presents a distinctive theoretical perspective, illustrated with case histories and reproductions of artwork produced in therapy. Most of the children discussed are developmentally quite young, although some are chronologically adolescents. The range of difficulties treated includes autism, deprivation and abuse, a variety of developmental disabilities, and "illness behaviour" (hysteria). Three chapters focus on the language of art and its development in children, two on art therapy in psychiatric clinics, three on work with abused children, and two on art therapy in the educational context, with the final chapter raising the issues of a multicultural setting. Perhaps most relevant to current work in the US is Carol Sagan's chapter on cases of child sexual abuse, which provies sensitive insights, including a powerful description of ritualization in the abusive experience and in the healing process. Here, as in other instances of art therapy, transference takes place onto both the therapist and the materials. Opportunity is provided for the symbolic rebuilding and reorientation of the self. Other general themes present include the frequent absence of fathers, the challenge of working with both inner-world and outer-world materials, and of finding the right therapeutic balance. Chapter references; name and subject indexes. For undergraduate and graduate students. L. M. C. Abbott formerly California School of Professional Psychology--Fresno