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An obese ten-year-old boy of dull normal intelligence was brought to the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Hospital at the request of the school authorities because he was a severe behavior problem. The family background was a very disturbed one and the parents handicapped rather than helped the treatment. He was hospitalized in the Institute for eight months. From the second to the seventh month he attended art sessions, at first for a half-hour period twice a week and later for a full hour. The treatment procedure was in the nature of play therapy where art work in the form of drawing and clay modeling was used by the therapist to approach the deeper layers of instinctual conflict.
The boy aided by the therapist reached and learned to master his Oedipal and preoedipal conflicts. With the removal of anxiety and shame by interpretation and education, he was able to make progress in ego development. The fact that the home situation was not materially altered interfered with his making a better adjustment.
The direct method of approach, the exclusion of the parents from the treatment situation, the use of the child's slang or individual sexual terms, the interpretation of id material and the use of transference, is suggestive of the methods employed by the Melanie Klein school of child analysis.