Discussion

This paper, which I have had the pleasure of not only reading but of hearing presented by the author herself, is so excellent that it would be easy, and in many ways justified, for me to spend my allotted journal pages in expressions of admiration of Dr. Pearson, of her treatment of Mrs. X, and of her narrative of the patient's treatment.

I admire her ability to appreciate the creativity and the intendedly constructive potentiality — the healthy potential — of Mrs. X's symptoms, as when Pearson reports that “We looked in detail at the many functions that self-mutilation had served for her. It was a magical way to protect her children and the therapist from harm …. and was a way to define herself, to prove that she was real.”

I admire, too, Pearson's having so strong a self-esteem, so deep a sureness of her own worth, that she can freely acknowledge the contributions of other persons to Mrs. X's recovery — the contributions of, for example, the social worker, the patient's husband, and the art therapist. When she writes that “Mrs. X first allowed us a glimpse into her pathological side through her art work,” we sense that Pearson realizes that the series of the patient's paintings are more than merely signposts marking the progress which the patient is making in individual psychotherapy with the author herself, but are creative productions in the making of which the patient found innately therapeutic value.