Dibs in Search of Self: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

The next Thursday, at Dibs’s third session, he notes that Axline replaced the paint lids. He then picks up the nursing bottle and starts to suck on it. Soon after, he tells himself to take off his hat and coat and does so without assistance, returning to the nursing bottle afterward. Axline asks if Dibs likes the bottle, and Dibs replies that he does. Dibs sucks on the bottle for a long time and watches Axline as he does so.

Next, Dibs reads the label on a box of counting blocks. Axline notes that Dibs often displays his intelligence as a coping mechanism for emotional distress. Axline also sees that there may be some conflict between expectations of Dibs’s behavior and what he wants to be or do. Sometimes Dibs is very capable and sometimes he simply wants to be a baby. Axline wonders if Dibs feels his intellectual abilities are the only parts of him that others value, and she wonders whether he wishes to be loved and respected for all his qualities. Axline is amazed that Dibs has concealed so much of his intelligence.

Axline wishes she had more information about Dibs’s family life, noting that there are probably many complicated reasons that his relationship with his parents is so deficient. Dibs continues to suck on the nursing bottle until he says, “Take off my rubbers.” Axline realizes that he means her own shoes and she takes off her boots. Then Dibs takes the top off of the bottle and empties the water into the playroom sink.

Suddenly, Dibs stops and says, “I am thinking.” Axline does not press him for his thoughts. She wants him to learn that he is a person with many parts: ups and downs, fears, courage, infantile desires and mature interests. She wants him to learn that he can take the initiative in relationships with people.

After Dibs finishes thinking, he says he will finger paint, play in the sand, and have a tea party. Axline guesses that he is planning what he wants to do for the rest of the hour. Dibs says that Axline is right. Dibs smiles and laughs—the first laugh Axline has heard from him. As Dibs fills the nursing bottle with water again, he says that he wants to take his snow pants off. Axline says Dibs can take his snow pants off if he wants to, but if he doesn’t want to, that’s okay too, because it’s cold inside. Dibs sighs with frustration that he is told to take off his boots inside, but that he can leave his snow pants on because it is cold. Axline affirms that rules can be confusing.

For Dibs’s next activity, he starts to play with a farmhouse in the sandbox. He asks Axline for her help, but then he sets up the farmhouse without assistance. Dibs talks freely about animals as he plays with the animal figurines. As he plays, Axline warns Dibs that he only has five more minutes. Dibs then buries three figures and a toy truck under the sand, creating a mound on top of them. After this, he takes a duck figurine and places it on the hill, asking Axline not to move the sand or the duck. Dibs then tells Axline to write down that he found the sand interesting and that he played with the house and the fighting men. Finally, Dibs picks up his coat and hat and walks out of the playroom, leaving with his mother without a word.

After Dibs leaves, Axline goes into her office, amazed at Dibs’s development and the new freedom he is clearly feeling. She doesn’t want to analyze too quickly the symbolism of his play. The primary benefit of this kind of therapy is learning two things: that he knows his inner world better than anyone else does, and that responsible freedom develops from within himself. Dibs has to learn self-respect and dignity before he can respect others.