Puppet play in a thirteen-year-old boy: Remembering,repeating, and working through

This paper presents and attempt to understand some of the enduring psychological sequelae of abuse, deprivation, and rejection in the life of a 13-year-old boy. This child recreated in four puppet play dramas many of the memories and associated emotions of what had occurred. These dramas also represented an attempt at restitution and mastery of the previous trauma. A means of conceptualizing both the nature of the trauma suffered and the restitutive effort is discussed. The fact of psychological sequelae persisting in the child on a long-term basis has important implications for current approaches to the treatment of child abuse and neglect because frequently the focus is solely on parental counseling or training.