Between sand and blue in the closed psychiatric ward: Sandplay therapy with adolescents in a state of psychosis

Résumé

This article presents examples of sandplay processes with adolescent hospitalized patients whose clinical diagnoses featured extreme behaviors such as disorganization, lack of connection to reality, lack of awareness of their own state, physical or verbal aggressiveness, suicidal thought and self-injury. Unexpectedly, despite their diffused state, many of these adolescents chose to work in the sandtray, and created organized, balanced and aesthetic sand pictures, in which they clearly related to the sandtray center. The article focuses on four central round structures that appeared in the sandplays of over thirty-six patients out of fifty- six that worked in sandplay over the last ten years. The structures, a mound, a lake, a peripheral enclosing boundary and a dramatic central scene are illustrated by twenty-two examples chosen from the sandplay processes of seven patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved) ADOLESCENT TROUBLE-PSYCHOTIQUE THÉRAPIE