Body and movement

Abstract

In the Zollikon research group, discussion of clinical cases takes place not only on a verbal level, but also taking into account the role that the body plays in the relationship with the patients and among group members. The body’s responses lay the ground for emotions to be felt without overwhelming those who are experiencing them. The comparison between different bodily experiences and feelings within the group, always brings to light new evidence on the sandbox scene. Thanks to dance, for example, it can replace the feeling of heaviness deriving from pain and trauma with that of lightness. The sandbox image is transformed and during an individual session, this awareness can be transmitted to the patient. Movement is also important for the patient: often when a patient cannot express his traumatic experience in words, the movement of the hands in the Sandplay helps him to express it in pictures. From a theoretical point of view, the author recalls: the importance that Carl Gustav Jung attributes to bodily experience from his first writings to seminars on Nietzsche, Mary Starks Whitehouse’s contribution to dance therapy and the role that Joan Chodorow attributes to movement as an activator of active imagination.