Overview

Lani Gerity shows in this book that puppet-making, incorporating both art and narrative, provides an ideal vehicle for therapeutic work. It is particularly valuable in the treatment of dissociative patients, whose symptoms may include disturbances in body image, a dissociated sense of self, a disrupted sense of history and causality, and a feeling of alienation from the self. Lani Gerity explores the application of this in the context of object relations theory. She shows the creative process working on many levels for dissociative individuals and groups. Making puppets, three-dimensional representations of the human body, helped one patient to integrate her sense of her body image and herself. Using puppets and creating narratives about them encourages patients to build communities and to release themselves from the hold of the trauma of their pasts. Descriptions and analyses of Gerity's work with dissociative patients in the US and Canada is underpinned by a theoretical framework which encompasses theories from the arts therapies and from psychiatry.

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9781853027222

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The author makes an excellent case for the study of puppetry as a transitional object to help clients work through feelings of personal trauma. -- OTPLD Newsletter

Author Information

Lani Gerity worked with dissociative adults for more than a decade in New York and has presented internationally and written on the dissociative patient, and on puppetry with adults. She currently practises art therapy in Ontario, Canada, assists with an art therapy programme for refugee children, serves as a visiting faculty member at New York University, and leads puppet-making workshops.

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