The boy who missed himself

Abstract

For the past twenty years the discipline of art-therapy has been consolidating amongst the therapeutic community, eventually acquiring its own idiosyncrasy and procedure. Nevertheless, the different ways of art-therapy are still barely understood, and sometimes seen through stereotypes, by non-specialists. In the present text a practical view of art-therapy is treated by exhibiting the case of a youngster with drug-addiction issues and a corporal castration resulting from an unexpected accident. The case revolves around a double predicament, namely, the formation of the self body image and the construction of the narcissist subject. Through its development the key elements of an art-therapeutic process are revealed, such as the initial contact, the therapeutic bond, the mediated communication through artistic creations or the importance of the closing.