Rise, Claudio
MEN’S VIOLENCE IN SANDPLAY

Journal of Sandplay Therapy, Volume 4, Number 1, 1994

KEY WORDS: men, masculine, violence, sandplay therapy, grief, eros, death, initiation, physical abuse, clinical example, ritual, confrontation, sacrifice, love, passion.

ABSTRACT: This article discusses the question that men bring to therapy, which has to do with being a man, what is masculine energy and how to use it. Through what the author describes as initiation, a man becomes conscious of this masculine energy. The separation from mother, prompts the awareness of the interior center holding violence. In transforming it, there can be an attitude of reverence and awe, sacrificing it. The sandplay process allows for recognition of and mastery over the violence. The author writes of the mark of Cain, the mark of the promise of violence. The mark confirms that in male development the struggle with violence will prompt responsible individuality, passion, power and grief.