Previews • 13his sister. Like many, he was afraid that he would discover that he really was defective,
maybe even “crazy.”
In our first meeting, he acknowledged that he had only come because his parents had
insisted, and told me that he was to get a reward. At first, Jack demonstrated how well he
could draw some of the cartoon characters he had invented (H). He then began to work with
clay, and created a series of increasingly massive and expressive heads. Initially the heads
were fairly human, but soon began to look more like dinosaurs (I), with extensions of vari-
ous sorts, including teeth, tongues, spikes, and horns (Figure 1.9). Jack was proud of his
sculptures, displaying them on a large table in my office, where they could be admired.
Jack talked constantly while he worked about the “pressure” he felt to perform in sports
and scholastics at the competitive private school he attended. Although he was competent in
both, he vacillated between bragging and worrying. As he became more trusting, he began
to disclose more about his feelings and anxieties, sometimes seriously, sometimes playfully.
Over time, I grew to understand Jack’s deep fears of inadequacy, of injury, and of his own
helplessness—fears he usually masked with an air of bravado.
Occasionally his terror would break through at home, and he would have another panic
attack. Sometimes he would regress and have a tantrum, scaring himself and his family.
Jack was masterful at manipulating his parents, promising to do what they wanted if they
would buy him one of the many objects he desired. Periodically, his parents would request a
meeting to “touch base,” sometimes because he was being oppositional in a passive-aggres-
sive fashion. His verbal attacks on family members increased for a time—a common side
effect when therapy uncovers repressed hostility. Although Jack had been oppositional all
his young life, he was not in touch with the depth of his rage toward his loving but some-
times overly involved parents.
With Jack’s permission, I sometimes showed his folks his artwork, which often “explained”
him better than my words. The meetings helped me to monitor the effects of the therapy,
since his parents could tell me more clearly than Jack what was going on at home and in
school. Our sessions also helped them to understand Jack’s puzzling behavior, so that they
could set limits as well as empathize with him.
Figure 1.9 A clay creature’s head by Jack.