What is a sandbox game?

Sandplay is "sandplay" or "sandplay therapy" in English, which translates into sandplay or sandplay therapy. Although sandbox games are widely spread around the world, there is no exact definition. According to the description of some sandbox game researchers, I define it as:

Sandplay is a psychotherapy technique created by Carl Wei, a Swiss analytical psychologist, on the basis of Jungian analytical psychology in the 1960s, drawing lessons from the operation method of "world technology" and integrating philosophical thoughts such as Taoism and Buddhism. In this technology, psychological patients use sand and various small toys to create a scene in the sandbox. Through this scene, psychologists and mental patients can understand the subconscious conflict of mental patients, make the undeveloped prototypes in the collective subconscious of patients enter the consciousness level, make these prototypes be developed, and finally imagine the treatment for mental patients.

In my definition, I first emphasize the identity of Carl Wei, the founder of sandbox game, as an analytical psychologist, so as to emphasize the affiliation of the theoretical schools of sandbox game, that is to say, sandbox game is a technology within the analysis scope of various schools of psychology. So what is analytical psychology? This is the schools of psychology founded by Swiss psychologist carl jung (1875- 196 1) in the early 20th century. This school belongs to sigmund freud (1856 1 ~ 18). Among them, Freud's theory is called psychoanalysis, and Jung's theory is called analytical psychology. The similarity between them is that they both admit the existence of the subconscious mind and emphasize that people's psychological behavior has internal driving force. Different from Freud, Jung put forward the concept of collective subconscious on the basis of Freud's subconscious theory.

Freud first put forward the concept of subconscious, which is actually the part of experience that people forget actively or passively. Some events that we have experienced but can't face, we will choose to "actively" forget, just like a boy, after falling in love, constantly convince ourselves to forget the boy who made him sad. There are some experiences that we don't feel painful. Because of time and other reasons, we gradually forget, such as the names of our primary school classmates. As time went on, we gradually forgot them. In fact, these forgotten events, whether active or passive, have not disappeared. They still exist in a certain corner of our psychology and will have an impact on us. For example, at a primary school classmate's party, we may never remember a classmate's name, but with a little reminder or constantly looking for clues, we can often remember the other's name again. This shows that these memories have not disappeared, but have not been felt by us. Freud called these unconscious psychological contents subconscious.

Jung was dissatisfied with Freud's theory. Jung believes that in addition to the part of the subconscious caused by our personal experience after birth (this part is called the individual subconscious by Jung), there are still some parts that are not cruel by our experiences after birth, such as fear of snakes and fear of darkness. We have never been bitten by a snake or attacked after night, but we are afraid of it. Jung assumed that this part of psychology was inherited from our ancestors and called it the collective subconscious. The collective subconscious is at the bottom of psychology and consists of countless prototypes. The so-called prototype is a variety of concepts formed in the process of human evolution. For example, the prototype of the wise old man, that is to say, people will think that the elderly are smarter. It is precisely for this reason that Zhuge Liang often has a long beard on our opera stage, while Zhou Yu, who is older than Zhuge Liang, is a creamy little student, in fact, just to emphasize Zhuge Liang's wisdom. Prototype is a concept, a tendency, and has no concrete form. However, this prototype can be represented by some symbols, just as Zhuge Liang can be used to represent the prototype of the wise old man, and Xiang Yu and Guan can be used to represent the prototype of the hero. Prototype, like potential, can't work if it can't be realized by individuals. In addition, every prototype is like a seed. Without the right conditions, it will always be in the original state, but if it meets the right conditions, it will take root and grow into a towering tree. The so-called suitable condition is that the prototype can enter consciousness from the collective subconscious and be realized by consciousness.

The growth and development of prototype is very important for individuals. If the prototype is well developed, people's psychology will be relatively sound, and they will be more energetic and creative; If tourism is not well developed, people will have psychological problems and even mental illness. On the contrary, if the undeveloped prototype is fully developed, it can solve psychological problems and treat mental diseases. Therefore, analytical psychologists have found many ways to help patients realize their undeveloped prototypes, thus promoting the development of prototypes and solving various psychological problems. These methods include dream interpretation, positive imagination, painting therapy and dance therapy. Hattori is one of them.

In the sandbox game, psychological patients choose small toys and make various sandbox scenes in the sandbox with sand. These scenes contain a variety of prototypes. If psychotherapists help patients realize these prototypes, they will also help producers develop their prototypes and solve their psychological problems. This is also the most important therapeutic principle of sand table game.

Sandplay itself is a kind of psychotherapy technology, which can also help people understand the psychology of the producers. If the producer is a child and the observer is a parent, there is no doubt that parents can learn about their children's psychology from their sandbox. As for how to learn about children through the sand table, I will introduce it in later chapters. Below, I will introduce how the sandbox game developed step by step.