Toy bookcase used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique"
Wooden model of a bookcase, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Miscellaneous section of figures, Box 29, taken from the Lowenfeld's 'World Technique' therapy collection. Consists of 10 shells, 3 forks, 1 blue, 2 red (plastic), 3 skiers, one in several pieces (wooden), 1 small blue spoon (plastic), 1 gold bell (metal), 2 fish (wooden), 3 fences, yellow (metal), 6 ladders, various, 1 lamp-post, large (metal), 5 black in blue and yellow, 'Femsprecher' (wooden), 2 troughs (metal), 7 shell petrol pumps, yellow (wooden), 1 grave stone (metal), 1 red petrol pump with a shell on top (metal), 2 figures on triangular bikes (wooden), 1 crossings lamp-post (metal), 2 pedestrian crossing posts (metal), 2 '30' sign posts (metal), 10 posts, various (metal), 10 posts with red triangle on top (metal), 1 beehive (metal), 1 black hat (metal), 1 cup (wooden), 1 colander (metal), 1 pink dish (plastic), 6 posts, various, 1 windmill (metal), 2 bird houses (wooden), 1 lighthouse (wooden), 1 milk churn (metal), 1 small milk bottle (metal), 1 totem pole (metal), 1 red post box missing its front(metal), 1 silver pot (metal), 3 direction signs (metal), 1 red horse shoe (plastic), 1 green lid (plastic), 3 green houses, 2 plastic, 1 metal, I green chair (metal), 1 flat scene, table with red sock (metal), 2 yellow baskets (metal), 1 sheet, blue with blue milk churns on (plastic), 1 table top, legs missing (wooden), 1 water pump, handle missing (metal), 1 water pump handle, pump missing (wooden) and 27 unidentifiable items, various.
What do toys have to do with trauma? In the years before the Second World War, Margaret Lowenfeld, a child psychiatrist in London, was looking for ways to help children express fears, anger, and family problems that they couldn’t say in words. At her clinic, she began experimenting with the use of small toys in a sand-box and gradually developed an approach she called ‘the World Technique’. This involved a large rectangular tray, sand and water for building a landscape, pieces of plasticine, and an extensive ‘library’ of miniature figures kept in dozens of drawers. Lowenfeld simply asked children to create a world, and observed what happened.
Her idea had parallels to Sigmund Freud’s theories of hysteria – where repressing traumatic memories could lead to psychological and physical symptoms. But Lowenfeld never regarded herself as a psychoanalyst. She always said her chief influences were the children she worked with and the novelist H.G. Wells. She attributed the idea behind the World Technique to a small book, published in 1911, in which Wells described how he had encouraged his two sons to construct elaborate ‘floor games’ out of miniature figures, such as toy soldiers and building blocks.
Other therapists carried on Lowenfeld’s methods in various ways. In the 1950s and 1960s, one psychoanalyst adapted the World Technique in order to encourage children and adults to develop their ‘inner selves’ in a safe, non-judgmental space. This approach became very popular among American psychotherapists under the name ‘Sandplay’. Later, in the 1960s, psychologists in Sweden standardised the World Technique into the ‘Erica Method’, which uses a set of 360 toys in various categories. The Erica Method has recently been used to study post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Iranian refugee children in Sweden.
Wooden model of a bookcase, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Metal model of a thatched hut, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Metal model of a tepee, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Metal model of a tepee, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Metal model of a green ladder, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Wooden model of a person with articulated legs and arms, rms, wearing a swim cap and a blue top
Wooden model of a skier, red and black, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Wooden model of a rabbit on red skis, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Metal model of a blue plough, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Wooden model of an ice box, yellow, silver lids, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Wooden and metal model of a cart, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Wooden model of a woman in a blue dress and red hat standing on a bit of grass, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Wooden model of a red and brown chair, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970
Plaster model of a pie, unknown maker, used in Margaret Lowenfeld's "World technique", 1920-1970