By Elizabeth Newson on the work of Dr Margaret Lowenfeld
Child Development Research Unit

The literature that has been handed down by the great names of play therapy can be off-putting for the ordinary common-or-garden developmental or clinical psychologist ready to get her hands dirty but lacking the confidence bestowed by a ‘proper’ therapy training. In my own case, I had started reading Klein, Axline and many more in my undergraduate days, and had become increasingly doubtful about some of what was going on behind these accounts. For a start, the stories seemed too neat and the children too articulate; could the mute Dibs really after only a short time in therapy have uttered the poetic words ‘I am of builder of cities’? The fees presumably paid to the therapist often seemed to be reflected by the middle-class luxury problems or some of the children.