Liminality, art therapy and childhood sexual abuse

Abstract

This article discusses the relevance of liminality for art therapy and childhood sexual abuse. ‘Liminality’ comes from the Latin word limen and refers to our encounters with, and experiences of, thresholds. Social anthropologists have studied liminality in the context of rite-of-passage rituals that commonly mark social and personal transitions, for example at puberty, marriage and death. I make two claims for the relevance of liminality in thinking about childhood sexual abuse. The first is that abused children become liminal personae (threshold-people) through their premature sexual knowledge and experiences. As we will see, in the anthropological literature liminal personae are considered to be anxiety-provoking. I believe that anthropological ideas can help us to make sense of public, media and government responses to the anxiety provoked by childhood sexual abuse. My second claim makes a link between liminality and trauma and brings together ideas about the breaching of thresholds, annihilation anxiety and experiences of the sublime. We will see that liminality is intimately linked with trauma and is therefore relevant for many art therapy clients. Images allow unspeakable traumatic experiences to be acknowledged and explored, which makes art therapy a particularly effective intervention for children traumatised by sexual abuse.

Keywords:

• Liminality
• thresholds
• sexual abuse
• trauma
• ritual
• sublime

Acknowledgements

Grateful thanks to Mike Wilson, Peter Byrne and Margaret Hills de Zárate for helpful discussions, to current and previous members of the Centre for the Vulnerable Child for their feedback on the ideas presented here, and to two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of the article.