Tending the Fire : Studies in Art, Therapy and Creativity

This book explores the notion of creativity as an internal fire or sense of aliveness and vitality in the self. Moving from the author's own painting experience to an understanding of the emergence of creativity in the earliest mother-infant interactions, Ellen Levine brings together a theoretical understanding, drawn from psychoanalytic literature, with clinical material from practice as a child psychotherapist and expressive arts therapist. According to the author, using the arts in therapy is a process of fire-tending, of allowing play and experimentation to enter therapeutic space and enliven the experience. --- from book's back cover