Places We Practice • 221The sensorimotor aspects of working in art are indeed relaxing, as is the focus on cre-
ating—one of many reasons why art therapy is often used for children with enuresis or
encopresis like Amy, Alan, and Randy. Art offers a way to “let loose” for people of all ages
with many types of intestinal motility problems, from chronic constipation to irritable bowel
syndrome. Since family life is greatly affected by these disorders, family art therapy may
be the treatment of choice, as in Landgarten’s work with the family of an encopretic child
(Landgarten, 1987).
A Child With Encopresis: JERRY (11)
One day, Jerry, a partially sighted boy suffering from encopresis, made a head using plasti-
cine (L). Since he had chosen to use a single color, his limited vision made it very hard to see
where to put the facial features. Indeed, he was quite upset with his finished product, saying
that the head looked “all messed up.”
Drawing on my knowledge of art materials, I suggested that it might be easier if he made
the features with clay that were of different colors than the face. His first effort was only
slightly more satisfying (M), but he persisted, and eventually was able to make a large head
of a man, with a moustache and beard like his father’s, finally saying that it was his dad. He
was much more satisfied with it than he had been with the first (N).
He also went on to use the difference between the two heads in a most creative way, playing
out a story. Jerry called the first head “A Little Squished-up Man With a Little Squished-up
Face,” and the second “A Big Man With a Big Face.” In addition to his visual impairment,
Jerry had a growth hormone deficiency that actually made him look “squished-up.” In the
story, the little guy ended up killing the big one, who has been very critical of the smaller
fellow (Figure 10.5).
Jerry had finally found a way to play out, using the two heads, his angry death-wishes
toward his father, whom he held responsible for his mother’s desertion of the family fol-
lowing a series of violent fights. It was likely that his anal “messing” was an unconscious
expression of this hostility, directed partly toward the caretaking parent who literally had
to clean up the mess.
Figure 10.4 A stutterer relaxes while finger painting.