Letter to Betty Jackson

Kay Bradway, PhD, JA, CST-T

Abstract

A letter to Betty in response to her reflection on the dimensions of the sand tray summarizes the history of the sand tray’s “dimensions problem.” 1966: Publication of Dora Kalff’s Sandspiel (German) gave dimensions of sand trays in centimeters (later turned out to be incorrect). 1971: An English translation of Kalff”s 1966 Sandspiel gave dimensions of 19 by 28 by 3 inches, which agreed with dimensions orally stated by Kalff in lectures from which the editor took the dimensions. 1980: A new English translation of Sandspiel gave dimensions in centimeters (copied from Sandspiel), which converted to inches disagreed with those in the 1971 translation. 1982: During a meeting of the ISST founding members, a discrepancy between the dimensions of the trays of one of the founding members and Kalff’s orally stated specification brought to Kalff’s attention the discrepancy between the correct dimensions (in inches) in the 1971 translation, and the dimensions in centimeters in both Sandspiel and the widely circulated 1980 translation. Significance of the ratios between the dimensions of the sides is discussed.

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