ABSTRACT
In psychoanalytical theory, therapy does not only consist in pacifying the drives, it involves symbolic reorganisation. The therapeutic character of arts therapy is particular; it is neither that of psychoanalysis nor emotional therapies, which have no ambition towards artistic expression. Its nearest cousin is the shamanic cure. Symbolisation in artistic, plastic, musical, gestural and verbal forms constitutes an essential dimension of art therapy. In the realm of art therapy, which is of the character of a transitional activity, those forms participate at the same time in the simulacra and the 'nonresembling' sign. In rhythm dance therapy, Primitive Expression involves a mastering of the body insofar as it implies production accomplished through the intermediary of the musculature. Dance therapy involves both symbolisation and, when the patient is capable of it, sublimation. With sublimation, whether through analytical cure or dance therapy, patient had arrived at the end of his therapeutic journey.
