Inscapes of the Child's World
Jung's work is often regarded as directed toward and beneficial to adults in the mid-life stage or older. In Chapter I, John Allan does an excellent job of constructing the theoretical framework for a Jungian approach to counseling children. Because Jung emphasized the primacy of dreams, fantasies, and symbolic communication, and since children seem to be a natural source of such phenomena, it is a wonder more work has not been done. Allan's book offers a valuable antidote to overly rationalistic therapeutic techniques developed for adults that are often transposed onto techniques for treatin g disturbed children. Focusing on the world. of imagination as the primary source of disturbance as well as healing, Allan covers a wide range of problems and pathological syndromes. He also provides a thorough, as well as methodical protocol for a therapist's choice of treatment for a patient on an individual basis, or for patients in a group situation. Appropriately focused on the child's imagination as the source of reality, his or her "inscapes" are rendered through drawings illicited by various questions and contexts. By following several case studies through to resolution, and by also showing the drawings produced in these and other case studies, Allan develops a compelling argument for using a Jungian approach to counseling disturbed children. While there are many outstanding features such as this throughout the book, his focus on directing the therapist to be open to the dynamic contour of each patient's problem, and allowing the child to derive meaning from his or her own symbolic images, rather than "explaining them away" is superb! Based on his own clinical work with children over the past twenty years, Allan's book is an original contribution to Jungian research. 'Me book is clear and accessible to both clinicians and lay people. The only "flaw" this reviewer can find is that, (as with several Spring Publication books) notes are provided, but no index. James Hillman's perceptive foreword somewhat offsets the inconvenience of the omitted index. Strongly recommended for all college and university libraries. --FromIndependent Publisher