ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Squiggle Game, a drawing technique that Winnicott (1971) developed for use with children, as representing a relational psychoanalytic model in which the clinician plays with the child freely and spontaneously within a context of mutual, though asymmetric, interaction. When using the Squiggle Game, usually during the clinical interview, Winnicott would make a squiggle, a twisted or wriggly line, spontaneously drawn on a piece of paper. The child was then invited to add elements to the drawing and both would comment on the collaborative product. Winnicott would then transform a drawing made by the child and both would further comment on it. Whose drawing is it? Is it the child’s or the clinician’s? This question is discussed in the present chapter by describing the use of the method in the clinical interview of Dan, a 12-year-old exceptionally gifted boy who, on referral, clearly defined what he was looking for: a psychologist who would provide him with a glimpse of his internal world, enabling him to discover his true self, and would serve as a mediator between him and the external world.
