Non-Regressive Adult Play Therapy

The possibility of non-regressive adult play therapy as a treatment for bipolar artists is explored via the peculiar case of the poet Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), analyzed by Sigmund Freud in Vienna in the early part of 1933. Notes kept by H.D. during the analysis, a 1944 memoir for a London periodical, and her collected letters form a case study. Freud is shown to abandon psychoanalytic treatment for H.D. in favor of a play therapy based in the psychology of Alfred Adler. The myth of the twins Artemis and Apollo illuminates the deep structure and dynamics of her treatment. An examination of her first session and four subsequent dreams shows a brother-sister transference that initiates the mother into the sibling hoard as the healing factor. Empathy, regression, and interpretation are eschewed in favor of spirited play, culture creation, and a cooperation of consciences. A quick comparison with Jung's individuation shows deep parallels in the two cases. The political intolerance of the Jungian community toward Toni Wolff seems to be the major obstacle in the development of this otherwise promising approach to treatment for creative personalities.