ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION In our work as art therapists in a large hospital for people with learning difficulties we have found a small group amongst our clients, who although all individually very different, have gradually come to display characteristics that have led us to start viewing them as a distinctive group. They do not have a specific mental health diagnosis but their behaviour presents significant problems for those around them and themselves. They have only a moderate degree of learning disability and present most of the time as polite, sociable and often eager to please; however, many of them are detained in hospital under Mental Health or other legislation for a variety of reasons and, on occasion, display seriously antisocial and sometimes criminal patterns of behaviour. One feature which they all have in common is that
over time, sometimes for several years, they have maintained relationships with our department that are clearly meaningful to them but which often leave us feeling deeply confused, frustrated and at a loss to define what it is that we are attempting to offer them through the art therapy process.
