ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the role of creative activity in the treatment of Rachel from several perspectives: creativity in the search for an internal source of anguish; creativity as an attempt to repair both self and object; creativity and the working through of mourning; and creativity and personality development. In the first phases of the treatment, Rachel's creative activity expressed her own fears as well as those transmitted by her mother and grandmother. The chapter shows the patient's artistic activity enabled her to work through the mourning, pain, and guilt transmitted by some generations, and transform them through creative processes. Rachel's creative activity at the beginning of treatment revealed "the child within", who exhibited a damaged and fragmented self. A major part of the analytic work consisted of unravelling the internal parent entwined with Rachel, and the ensuing release of the terrible feelings of dependency and hatred that were interwoven with feelings of responsibility and love.