ABSTRACT
Marion Milner was Honorary President of the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) from the late 1970s until her death. By the time author came to know her in the late 1980s, she had ceased being involved in BAAT matters, but it was obvious that she always retained a special welcome for art therapists. Her books are a bit like detective stories, where by looking she is led from clue to clue, further and further into the plot, always alert, poised, and ready. At all times she found clues in her own body—that is, when she could achieve muscular relaxation and allow herself to "sink down" into it without interfering thoughts. Then it proved indeed a "big sagacity". "My sole concern was", she wrote, "to borrow forms, no matter from where, by which my own preoccupations could declare themselves." She very much regretted that the countertransference had to be kept in check in her days as a practising analyst.
