Squiggling to be: from yourself to the paper

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the Squiggle Game, a situation created by Winnicott to comprehend the communication of his patients. The game is described as proposed by Winnicott (1968, 1984) in his texts The Squiggle game and Therapeutic Consultations in Child Psychiatry, respectively. To the author, the drawings reveal, in the therapeutic area, some aspects of the individual’s personality and perceptive abilities, which many times, couldn’t be evidenced in the familiar environment. Safra’s study regarding this theme enriches the article. The experience lived by Karin, a 12-year-old teenager, apathetic to the studies and to her life, is presented as an illustration of how the Squiggle Game may happen in the clinical routine. The article also intends to foster the research with this kind of resource, which seems to be simple, but is highly complex and of great psychic significance.