ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of symbolism in a dramatherapy group for mentally disordered offenders in a psychiatric medium-secure unit. The group members created work around the character of `Spiderman' to explore issues relating to their offending behaviour and psychosis, before speaking more directly about their offences. My suggestion is that the creative work on Spiderman created a transitional space, and a bridge between concrete and symbolic levels of functioning. Theoretical links between dramatherapy and psychoanalytic theory are discussed to illustrate how dramatherapy can enhance therapeutic engagement with extremely resistant clients, and support the recovery of symbolic processes in offenders with a psychotic illness.
