There can be little argument that the story of Dibs: In Search of Self is about Dibs and his quest to establish a sense of self-identity. In this sense of the narrative, it is the tale of a little boy named Dibs and processes of a certain school of behavioral therapy. On the other hand, an argument can be made while the story is about Dibs, the book is about its author and the power of imagination to alter the course of a person’s narrative. Without the intervention of Dr. Axline, the story of Dibs would have played out quite differently, but that is probably true whether Axline’s approach was that as applied in the book or whether it had been any other approach she might have chosen.
The focus of this story of Dibs has to do with Axline’s application of a very specific form of psychotherapy known as play therapy. This has proven over the decades since publication of the book to be an especially effective form of therapy for getting at the root of behavioral problems in children. But what is especially significant to keep in mind is that Axline has absolutely no way of knowing whether her choice of therapy will have impact on Dibs because, although she has theories, she does not know what his problem is. Others have voiced opinions on that topic, but nobody knows for sure. And no matter how effective any particular therapy maybe in treating a condition, it inevitably winds up being useless in treating the wrong condition. Just as one wouldn’t take prescription medication for a heart problem to treat depression, using play therapy to treat mental retardation is probably only going to produce a result purely by happy coincidence.
The point being that it is not play therapy which ultimately is responsible for reaching Dibs. We will never know if some other form of treatment might have produced the same positive outcome, but statistically speaking it seems highly unlikely that play therapy alone was the only magic wand which could be wand. And since it can never be known if Axline just happened to benefit from a statistically improbable stroke of good luck in being an expert in the one and only treatment Dibs would have responded to, the focus of the book shifts from Dibs to Axline. It becomes not the story of Dibs search for self, but the search for someone with the imagination to believe Dibs could be reached.
When she first arrives at his school, Axline is treated a wealth of information. She sees for herself the behavioral problems of Dibs which has put him on the verge of being kicked out. Then she becomes the target of an onslaught of amateur theories about what is causing this behavior, some of which she seems to seriously consider and others which she seems likely to dismiss entirely. The point is nobody knows for sure and that includes Axline. Even more so, the point is that it would have been remarkably easy for someone in Axline’s place to judge Dibs’ misbehavior and the accompanying diagnoses and reach the decision that one of them is probably right. And then just walk away.
The real story of the book—the book itself and not story it tells—is that it would not exist without Axline having the imagination to look beyond the simplistic diagnoses of the teachers and Dibs’ parents. Furthermore, it is also the story a doctor having a mind open enough to see beyond the most likely outcome after her initial meeting with Dibs’ mother: three weeks of treatment and she’s going to pull the plug. The book is the story of the how having the imagination to look challenge everybody else’s limited imagination and the courage to challenge one’s own expectations of disappointment on the part of others to put their faith in technique to the test.
Ultimately, the successful treatment of Dibs is accomplished not with because of play therapy itself, but because Dr. Axline had was able to imagine that whatever condition Dibs suffered from was one that could be effective treated with play therapy. In this Introduction, Leonard Carmichael compares the story of Dibs to “a first-class detective story.” On the other hand, story of the book itself is comparable to one those movies about the cop who is the one capable of catching the bad guy he doesn’t play the rules. Which is simply a phrase to describe having the imagination to think in a way that other can’t or won’t.
