DIBS IN SEARCH OF SELF

Dibs in Search of Self

Dibs in Search of Self

How The Book Affected Me?

Dibs in Search of Self affected in the way that this book helped me to see individuals with learning disabilities from a different perspective. Granted, all children with learning disabilities do not turn out to be as gifted as Dibs. However, reading Dibs' story explains some of the emotional and social factors that impact a disabled child's development. The attitudes and behavior of Dibs' parents had a strong influence on the development of their child. Miss A, the clinical psychologist, was unable to persuade either parent to participate in psychotherapy along with Dibs, but deviated from standard procedure in this case because of her strong belief that she could help Dibs. Initially, Dibs' mother was as tense and remote as her son, insisting that Dibs' case was a tragedy of mental retardation that could not be helped with therapy. In fact, she was on the verge of institutionalizing Dibs. Later, with Dibs greatly improved, the mother revealed her role in her son's maladjustment. She never accepted Dibs as a normal child; instead, she was obsessed with teaching him, proving that he could learn at an extremely early age: "When a child is forced to prove himself as capable, results are often disastrous . . . He is devastated when confronted with rejection, doubts, and never-ending testing" (Axline, 1964, p. 166).

In fact Dibs in Search of Self is a true story by psychologist and author Virginia Axline. It chronicles a series of play therapy sessions over a period of one year with an emotionally crippled boy who comes from wealthy and highly educated family who, in spite of obvious signs that the boy is gifted, perceive him as a "mental defective" because of his reclusive and borderline autistic behavior. To protect his anonymity, Axline gave him the pseudonym "Dibs". Through the sessions Dibs slowly comes out of his shell, and it is gradually revealed that Dibs is a genius.

Virginia M. Axline (1911 - 1988) was a psychologist and the creator of Play Therapy. She wrote the book Dibs In Search Of Self. She was also the author of Play Therapy. This is the story of a successful use of play therapy with an emotionally disturbed five-year-old boy named Dibs. In nursery school Dibs is very withdrawn and resists his teachers' attempts to engage him. Dibs' parents and teachers had all but given him up as mentally retarded. Axline is brought in as a last resort, and in a series of play therapy sessions over a period of several months, cures him. (Dibs turns out to have an IQ of 168.) Axline takes an emotionally neutral approach to her patient, in spite of his obvious need for emotional support, in order not to interfere with his discovering of the self that had been severely repressed at home.

How My Knowledge And Attitudes Were Helped

I found it helpful in understand my subject very clearly after reading ...