LONG-TERM CREATIVE THERAPY WITH A BORDERLINE PSYCHOTIC BOY

Art therapists who work with children must sometimes satisfy their cli ents' immediate requirements by using modalities other than art, thus adopting a creative arts approach. Although art remained the primary m edium during 3 years of therapy with a borderline psychotic boy, cruci al moments of contact, focus, and sublimation were also achieved throu gh music, play, and puppetry. The boy harbored memories of maternal de privation during infancy; his mother was widowed and subsequently beca me depressed. His father was killed in the Yom Kippur War shortly befo re his birth in 1973 and his mother's unresolved bereavement prevented readjustment to normal family life. Therapy was terminated when the c hild achieved the transition from a fantasy world of fears and assumed identities to one in which he could relate to his peers and enter a n ormal school environment.