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In a real treatment home destruction and waste are not
to be chalked up to "the unavoidable weakness of human nature and the
imperfection of any supervisor’s eyesight." They may become essential
ingredients of the treatment process itself. It is therefore important
that the amount and type of materials available and the budget for them
are directly proportionate to the specific clinical task, not to the
average customs of budget committees or material-producing firms.
Bruno Bettelheim for instance advised us that, under certain conditions,
heavy and comfortable chairs are much more economical than lighter ones,
in spite of their higher purchase price, because the latter continually
offer themselves as throwing objects even in mild tantrums, while the
former don’t. In order to get youngsters who fear or hate arts and
crafts material to develop the taste for creative self-expression,
it may be quite important to forget, for a while,
about all limitations of economy of material. They could never even
approach the creative use of a piece of material if we loaded their ego
at the same time with demands of calculated cooperative economy. Yet the
trick can often be done if we temporarily sacrifice the latter so that
the former can blossom out.
The same is true, of course, for items like food, much of which may have
to be uneconomically prepared, so as to symbolize sociological taste
patterns out of those children’s past, and much of which may have to be
calculated to be wasted, in the symbolic use of defiance against the
love-offering adult. It took many smashed-up and thrown-around cakes and
pies and superhuman restraint on the side of our brave and wonderful
cooks until the love that was baked into a birthday cake could finally
really get across to its consumer. When it did,
though, it was worth the sacrifice in flour and
sweat that went into its less fortunate predecessors.
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