SATURDAY MEMORY
December 21, 2024

Sometime in the 70s, I invited Dora Kalff to do a seminar for analyst candidates in the training program at the C. G. Jung Institute in Los Angeles. Dora Kalff was the developer of Sandplay Therapy (1950), which used miniature figures placed in a small sandbox. The therapy was useful for both children and adults to express themselves non-verbally. Kalff's method was a further and specific development of Margaret Lowenfeld’s World Technique (1920). Dora presented a Friday night lecture on the Theory of Sandplay and then on Saturday had the candidates do sand trays and she would point out various configurations and analyze and interpret what was presented. At one point, Dora asked me if it would be OK to continue on Sunday. She said the material had brought up so much that she wanted to explore it further with the candidates. Everyone enthusiastically agreed. So, it was arranged.

Then Dora asked me to take her to the phone. I did. She made a call. She called Johns Hopkins University. I then heard her explain that she had to cancel her scheduled lecture there because she was not finished with her work in Los Angeles. I was stunned by this. She saw my stunned expression, smiled, and said, “Russ, always go where the depth leads you.”-