FUJIMAKI Ruri
Archives of Sandplay Therapy, 29(1) 43-54, 2016 Peer-reviewed
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have problems distinguishing between themselves and others, leading to difficulty with inter-subjectivity and a problem with any absence of the subject. Therefore, the psychotherapeutic approaches to ASD target differentiation between oneself and others. The process of differentiation begins with interactions that occur in an undifferentiated state: primitive inter-subjectivity. In play-therapy with an ASD child, the level of the therapist’s consciousness often descends into such a primitive state. This study refers to the therapist’s regression as “Jibeta-consciousness”. The Jibeta-consciousness is the therapist’s attempt to participate in the primitive undifferentiated state, and to become conscious of what is happening there. In Jibeta-consciousness, the therapist’s common logical thinking moves aside to the predicate logical one. This study presents a case of play-therapy with an ASD child in Jibeta-consciousness, as a process of primitive inter-subjectivity, in which the therapist and the client syncretized into the field, encountered and echoed each other, and separated gradually.