Psychotherapy through Imagery by Joseph E. Shorr (review)

Books 161 individuals reflect their desires and conflicts. But the social and cultural conditions of a period determine the value of what a creative individual has done. It is then that individuals are recognized as creators, irrespective of their psychoneuroses. Play as Exploratory Laming: Studies of Curiosity Behavior. Mary Reilly,ed. SagePublications, London, 1974.314pp. E7.50. Reviewed by Elka Dissanayake* The ‘make-believe’ nature of play-the realisation that the player is only temporarily committed to a particular set of circumstances- makes it a useful therapeutic device for handicapped children and adolescents who are made anxious by the ‘for keep’ demands of the real world. Such children also respond to carefully structured play in which their development can proceed at an individual pace. Written by sixoccupationaltherapists, this book (whosetitle is misleading) contributes to an awareness of the importance of play for the ‘deficit child‘ and to the actual implementation of therapeutic play. Shirley Michelman provides a Play Agenda to ensure that the development of sensory, perceptual and intellectual behaviour will be fostered in a balanced manner. Nancy Takata offers a model for taking a Play History for a child; based on this, an individualized Play Prescription can be devised to direct the therapist’s efforts more effectively. Susan Knox, recognizing that play reflects general development, presents aPlay Scaleof what can beexpected at different levelsof maturity. Janith Hurff addresses the middle-childhood period with an inventory that determines whether a child performsfour kinds of play skillsacceptably or unacceptably. Phillip Shannon is concerned with decision-making play as a means of helping emotionally-immature adolescents to choose a future occupation . In addition, there are three lengthy prefatory chapters by the book’s editor. These are historical and theoretical and are of potential interest to persons like myself who find the subject of play fascinating and provocative because of its implications for an understanding of art and creativity. Mary Reilly is aware of the significanceof play not only for individual therapy but in a broader sense; for example, she describes ways in which play is important to survival. She considers leisure, along with education, to be of crucial importance for contemporary social transformation. and she asserts that play provides numerous opportunities for changing as well as adapting to reality. Her survey of biological, psychological and socio-cultural explanations given for behaviour of play is wide-ranging and up-to-date and the implications for play of systems analysis and game theory are included in her purview. Unfortunately, the complex subject is made more perplexing by confused syntax, faulty grammar, atrociousjargon, befuddled presentation and many minor errors. These shortcomings are regrettable, for the field of play can offer insight into many subjects, some of them of vital significance to human life. Psycbotberapy through Imagery. Joseph E. Shorr. Intercontinental Medical Book Corporation, New York, 1974. 191 pp. Paper. Reviewed by M c t Nagler** In this book Shorr describesin detail an approach outlined in his earlier book Psycho-Imagination Therupy, giving numerous detailed narratives of individual cases. His method proceeds in a vein similar to that of psychodrama (the acting out of ideas or suggested topics) or to that of art therapy, where a specifictopic is suggested. However, here the imagination of suggested topics and the use of fantasy are translated into narratives and dialogues with the therapist, at times combined with screaming, crying, shouting and body actions but not to the degree of acting out rolesasdonein psychodrama. A frequently suggestedtopic is ‘travel’ through parts of the patient’s own body or that of a person whom the therapist suspects of being connected in some aspects with the emotional difficultyof the patient. Many of the *51/5 Bahirawakanda, Kandy, Sri Lanka. **2404Langhorne Rd., Lynchburg, VA 24501,U.S.A. case illustrations are centered around problems in the sexual sphere somewhat similar to those stressed in psychoanalysis, but the subjects may be closer to the subconscious rather than the unconscious level.The author himself refers only tangentially to psychoanalytic hypotheses. The approach is interesting and appears to be of value in the treatment of those patients who are reasonably articulate or can be sufficientlystimulated to verbalizetheir thoughts and feelings. But it should be stressed that...