Dibs in Search of Self: Play Therapy and Child Development

Introduction

Dibs in Search of Self is a classic text that demonstrates the principles of play therapy in a manner that traces the development of an entire child — from a state of trauma back to psychological health. It cultivates ideals that have served as guidelines and standards for the field of play therapy. The book demonstrates that the difficulty of resolving intellectual and social issues can be significant for some people, and that the outward actions of those individuals can cause others to judge them inaccurately. The work is meant to give hope to professionals, parents, and teachers dealing with very troubled children, as outward behavior does not always reflect inner ability.

From the initial observations of Dibs's teachers, it was plain to see that all their training had led them to no realistic conclusion about his behavior. He was nearly completely withdrawn and responded to direct contact with either indifference or anger. All the teachers really seemed to know was that they did not want to see Dibs fall through the cracks — and that they were neither equipped nor trained to help him (Axline, 1986, pp. 17–19).

Teachers' Observations and Limitations

The intervention by the psychologist was a last resort that seemed to be exactly what Dibs needed to reconcile his emotions and fears with his surroundings. The overriding feeling one takes from reading about Dibs is that he was almost paralyzed by fear and deeply distrustful of everything around him. The therapeutic environment described by the author was the beginning of what Dibs needed to reach out, begin to speak, and interact with his surroundings. He needed to be given physical and mental permission to engage with the world in a way that went beyond the enclosed environment he had created for himself.

Axline describes the play therapy room in the following terms:

The Therapeutic Environment

"There was nothing about the room or the materials in it that would tend to restrain the activities of a child. Nothing seemed to be either too fragile or too good to touch or knock about. The room provided space and some materials that might lend themselves to the emergence of personalities of the children who might spend time there. The ingredients of experience would make the room uniquely different for each child. Here a child might search the silence for old sounds, shout out his discoveries of a self momentarily captured, and so escape from the prison of his uncertainties, anxieties, and fears. He brings into this room the impact of all the shapes and sounds and colours and movements, and rebuilds his world, reduced to a size he can handle." (Axline, 1964, p. 22)

This description captures how the therapeutic space functions not merely as a physical setting but as a psychological permission structure — a place where a child is free to reconstruct his world on his own terms.

Axline's ongoing observations of Dibs led to a deeper understanding of his fears and needs. The play therapy environment gave him full permission to interact with and react to the world as he saw fit. To such a degree did this freedom operate that his genuine skills and actual intelligence were ultimately revealed (Axline, 1964, p. 219). This outcome speaks to the core argument of the book: that a child's capacity cannot be assessed from his surface behavior alone.