Imagining Animals

Art, Psychotherapy and Primitive States of Mind

Caroline Case

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Paperback

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English

Routledge
30 July 2025

Psychoanalytical theory (Freudian psychology); Child & developmental psychology; Psychotherapy; Creative therapy (eg art, music, drama)

Series: Routledge Mental Health Classic Editions

This classic edition of Imagining Animals explores how the making of animal images in art therapy and child psychotherapy can act as a powerful catalyst for children who may be struggling with communication. Readers will benefit from learning about the different ways that animal symbolism can support autistic children and children navigating trauma, abuse and depression in engaging with the therapeutic process.

This essential book explores two contrasting primitive states of mind throughout: the investing of the world around us with life through animism and participation mystique, and the lifeless world in the states of mind encountered in children who are hard to reach. Featuring a new introduction by the author, subjects covered in subsequent chapters include, but are not limited to:

Animal/human relationships Animal symbolism Animals on stage in therapy and anthropomorphic animal objects Three-dimensional clay-work The location of the self in animals

Imagining Animals offers a unique insight into the role and representation of animal imagery in art therapy and child psychotherapy. This is an essential read for all arts and play therapists working with children as well as adult psychotherapists interested in the use of imagery.

By: Caroline Case
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781041002475
ISBN 10: 1041002475
Series: Routledge Mental Health Classic Editions
Pages: 236
Publication Date: 30 July 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

PART I Introduction: Working with children who are hard to reach 1. An animal alphabet of our actual and symbolic relationship to animals 2. Animals on stage in therapy: anthropomorphic animal objects 3. Animation through the window: the beautiful and the sublime PART II Introduction: Closeness and separation 4. Separation and sleeping difficulties: helpful images with sleepless children 5. The location of self in animals 6. Entangled and confusional children: analytical approaches to psychotic thinking and autistic features in childhood PART III Introduction: Case study: the heart and the bone 7. From calm to chaos and rage 8. Things that go bump in the night, the ‘fish pictures’ and the development of clay-work 9. The heart and the bone 10. Working towards the end of therapy and conclusions

Caroline Case worked with children and families in the statutory services and in private practice for 48 years. She has published widely on her therapeutic work as an art therapist and child and adolescent psychotherapist.

Reviews for Imagining Animals: Art, Psychotherapy and Primitive States of Mind

'This gem of a book will enrich the thinking of all those working analytically with states of mind in which autistic and psychotic defences predominate. Case distils many years of clinical experience with ""difficult to reach"" child patients into a sensitively crafted work which not only uses a wealth of clinical material, but also stories, poetry and images, to convey her approach in theory and in practice. She offers us the animal world, both in itself and in metaphor, as a medium for contacting and relating to the primitive levels of experience encountered in working with profoundly defended areas of the psyche.' Katherine Killick, Society of Analytical Psychology