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Chapter 22
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dibs in Search of Self, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Therapy, Empathy, and Non-Judgment
Parental Expectations vs. Self-Determination
Trust and Security
Intelligence vs. Emotional and Social Skills
Summary
Analysis
Axline returns from vacation and receives a message from Dibs’s mother, who reports that Dibs wants one more session. Dibs’s mother says that Dibs was wonderful this summer—he was happy, relaxed, and talked all the time. Dibs comes in the following Thursday, and Axline also observes that he is much more relaxed, outgoing, and happy. Even Dibs’s movements are more graceful. When Axline meets Dibs in the waiting room, he shakes her hand and greets her warmly.
After spending a period of time away from Dibs, Axline observes how Dibs’s self-determination and inner security has allowed him to become freer, demonstrating the effectiveness of her therapy and how important building those qualities are to a child’s happiness. He is not simply dependent on the therapy: now he is making strides on his own.
Themes
Dibs and Axline go to the office, which Dibs says is a wonderful place. He takes out Axline’s card file, which still has just his card and her card. She says she put everyone else’s cards in another box, but she kept this one as he said he wanted it. Dibs is amazed, and he repeats, “As I said I wanted it.”
Dibs’s refrain of “as I said I wanted it” reinforces how much he values the ability to be himself in the room and determine what he wants, despite his parents’ expectations.
Themes
Soon after, Dibs and Axline return to the playroom. He whirls around it, laughing and commenting on how wonderful the room is. He turns on the water in the sink and splashes it. Then he picks up a jar of yellow paint and says that he’s going to deliberately pour it on the floor. He does so, saying it makes him feel good to do it. Then he gets out cleaning rags and wipes up the puddle of paint.
Dibs’s actions with the paint call back to Axline’s statement that part of growing up is in developing “responsible freedom.” He has the freedom to pour out the paint if he wants to, but he also takes responsibility for his actions by cleaning it up. Dibs’s laughter and ease also show how having this responsible freedom allows him to be happy and thrive.
Themes
Dibs then says that he can’t quite figure out the playroom, explaining that he doesn’t know what kind of person Axline is, because she’s not a teacher or a mother or his mother’s friend. But it doesn’t matter. Dibs then runs over to the nursing bottle and says that the bottle brings him comfort when he needs it; he sucks on it for a few minutes. Dibs realizes, however, that he doesn’t need the bottle anymore, and he hurls the bottle against the radiator so hard that it breaks.
Dibs recognizes that the nursing bottle has brought him comfort. But just as Axline stated that the best security is found in oneself, Dibs acknowledges that he doesn’t need the nursing bottle to find that comfort or security. Breaking the bottle is a symbolic gesture that Dibs has grown up and doesn’t need objects to affirm his occasional desire to be childish.
Themes
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Dibs walks over to the dollhouse, saying goodbye to the figures. Then he goes to the window and asks if he can go over to the church across the street. Axline says yes, even though it’s an unusual request. Inside the church, Dibs is impressed by its magnificence, saying that he feels very small. Dibs comments that God must be very big to need such a big house.
Just like breaking the nursing bottle, going to the church is another symbolic change for Dibs. It contrasts with Dibs’s first session, in which he only felt safe enough to touch and name the objects in the room. Now he is much more willing to be adventurous and take risks, leaving the comfort of the playroom and exploring a completely unknown environment.
Themes
The organ starts to play, and Dibs becomes afraid. But he stops before he and Axline leave. Dibs explains that he is afraid of the bigness and the noise but that the church also fills him with brightness and beauty. Dibs waves goodbye to God and he and Axline return to the playroom. He found their trip very nice, and he asks Axline why some people believe in God and some don’t. She says she’s not sure, but everyone decides for themselves.
Even though Dibs is afraid, he is able to overcome this fear, indicating a greater sense of inner security. He’s clearly becoming able to soothe himself and regulate his own reactions to situations. The trip proves that Dibs is open to new experiences and willing to take initiative in his life when he is curious about something.
Themes
Dibs wonders what God is like. His grandmother says that God is like a Father in heaven, but he hopes that God isn’t like his own father, because he doesn’t always know if his father loves him. Dibs knows that his grandmother loves him because he feels it deep inside him. He wants to talk to God, but his parents don’t believe in God. Soon after, the buzzer rings and Dibs says goodbye to Axline. He skips over to his mother, greets her, and takes her hand to leave.
Dibs’s discussion of God also illustrates that he is taking more responsibility for his own thoughts and feelings, allowing himself to think beyond the confines of his parents. While his parents don’t believe in God, Dibs contemplates the idea that he can make his own determination on religion. This mature, introspective assessment shows just how much Dibs has grown throughout his therapy sessions.
Themes
