196 • Introduction to Art Therapy
At her fifteenth session, Dorothy again shifted symbols, carefully drawing a pictorial
“list” of clothes, later identifying them as all belonging to the youngest child on the unit, a
boy of five of whom she was jealous. She said she wished she had clothes as pretty as his, and
complained that hers were so ugly.
The following week the clothes were drawn first, then a picture of an older boy and the
younger one, in which the older one has thrown away the little one’s doll and he is crying—
perhaps her jealous wish as well as empathic fear (N).
In the next session, she began her “cat phase,” and for seven weeks made pictorial “cata-
logs” of cats (O), pictures of cat families (P), and of her fantasy wish of being dressed in a cat
costume (Q)—a bit more realistic than actually becoming a bird (R).
At her twenty-fourth session, the next to the last we were to have, Dorothy drew a picture
of the young boy and many articles of his clothing, afterward circling those that she also
possessed. She was talking much more by then, having improved considerably in intelligi-
bility through intensive speech therapy, and had many questions about “endings.”
At the last session, we reviewed the artwork in her folder, a useful way to help a patient
to get closure during termination. She was very interested, studying the pictures quietly
and closely, with little verbalization. The most potent pictures, those dealing openly with
hostility, were passed over rapidly, and the greatest time was spent looking at those of the
children on the ward.
She looked longingly at her portrait of the “Tortoise Shell Family,” remarking that the
mommy and daddy weren’t there, though previously she had identified the larger ones
as parents, and that the cats want to cuddle up to people (Figure 9.3). No doubt the per-
ceived loss of parents was related to the impending loss of her art times and art therapist
(S), to whom she had grown attached. She did one more drawing of clothing, an item or two
belonging to each boy on the ward, then put her arms around me, saying, “I like you,” and
said a rather clingy goodbye.
Figure 9.2 Dorothy’s angry eagle drawing.