"Play is regarded as an end in itself.”
— Silvan Tomkins
Play
Over the past several months, we have been exploring our earliest feelings, or “primary affects.” This month we will consider another topic in the midst of this discussion, and that is play.
The concept of play has been the subject of a large literature, both popular and professional (see References). Play is closely linked to creativity, education, and psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. One synonym for play is recreation, or, perhaps better, re-creation—which conveys play as a process.
Parent-child relationships benefit tremendously from play. Play helps the child’s internal development as well as external interpersonal skills. Why does this happen? As we shall see, play involves the two positive affects in human beings: interest (curiosity) and enjoyment.
Play and Affect Theory
Much has been studied and written about play, and we would like to consider play from a somewhat different perspective, namely, that of affect theory. What is play, in terms of primary affects?
Play appears to be a process, primarily, but not only, dealing with the positive affects of interest and enjoyment. It seems to involve oscillations between increases and decreases of interest and enjoyment. Surprise also is part of this process. Surprise quickly can become tinged with positive affects or negative. Even if a negative affect is briefly elicited (e.g. distress), a reduction of tension (enjoyment) can be experienced as pleasurable (i.e. play).
Tomkins (Demos, 1995) links play with excitement, and, as with other positive affects, discusses maximizing play :
“The child is encouraged and permitted to play with the parents, with peers, and by himself. Many interactions are converted into games and playful rituals which otherwise might be neutral, dull, or unpleasant. Play is regarded as an end in itself ” (p. 170).
Play is also closely related to competence and establishing confidence and self-esteem. Harry Harlow, in his work with monkeys, famously noted: “The performance of the task provided intrinsic reward” (Pink, 2009, p. 3). Robert White (1959) used the term “effectance motivation” or effectance pleasure. For White, competence referred to “an organism’s capacity to interact effectively with its environment” (p. 297).
Mike Basch, in his book Understanding Psychotherapy: The Science Behind the Art, brings these concepts together to explain how our affective life relates to competence, confidence, and solid self-esteem in our character structure.
Play has often been linked to creativity (e.g. Brown, 2009; Pink, 2009; Amabile, 2009). Creativity, of course, is a large and important topic itself and has spawned a huge literature. One of the most consistent themes in this connection between play and creativity has to do with intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation – i.e. a person’s own interest and enjoyment versus goals, expectations, values from the external world. This somewhat overstates the dichotomy, but you get the point.
Similarly, Bertrand Russell suggested the terms creative and possessive:
“I call an impulse creative when its aim is to produce something which otherwise wouldn’t be there and is not taken away from anybody else. I call it possessive when it consists in acquiring for yourself something which is already there” (1960, p. 130).
Silvan Tomkins wrote in detail about his intrinsic/extrinsic difference (Demos, 1995). “The issues constitute a polarity extending from the extreme left through a middle of the road position to the extreme right-wing position. The issues are simple enough. Is man the measure, an end in himself, an active, creative, thinking, desiring, loving force in nature? Or must man realize himself, attain his full stature only through struggle toward, participation in, conformity to a norm, a measure, an ideal essence basically prior to and independent of man?” (p. 117). For Tomkins, play and creativity and an intrinsic view come about through focus on the positive affects, whereas the extrinsic view tends to be more related to the negative affects.
Scientific creativity is often conceptualized as play, i.e. the feelings of interest, enjoyment, and surprise. Here is a lovely example. Charles Darwin’s manner was described by his son Francis as bright and animated as he worked during his 60’s:
“His love of each particular experiment, and his eager zeal not to lose the fruit of it, came out markedly in these crossing experiments—in the elaborate care he took not to make any confusion in putting capsules into wrong trays, &c. &c. I can recall his appearance has he counted seeds under the simple microscope with an alertness not usually characterizing such mechanical work as counting. I think he personified each seed as a small demon trying to elude him by getting into the wrong heap, or jumping away altogether; and this gave to the work the excitement of a game” (Janet Browne, 2002, p. 414-415).
Play, Psychology, and Therapy
We are indebted to Donald Winnicott for so many insights, and play is one of them (see Playing and Reality, 1971). Winnicott suggested play was a way of reaching the authentic, creative, less-defended part of a person’s personality—i.e. the “True” self, in terms of his True and False Self-distinction (1960). Another of his ideas is that therapy represents the overlap of the two play areas, that of the patient and that of the therapist—and if one or the other cannot play, then one must work to understand that dynamic.
Play is one of the major venues of all child therapy—as Hermine Hug-Hellmuth, Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, and others showed. And play is also important in work with adults. The notion of play in adult therapy presages the development of so-called relational and intersubjectivity schools of thought.
Play is significant for development. In the face of various feelings of vulnerability, anxiety, and helplessness, young children will often play games in which they are strong superheroes or cowboys or whatever. Fantasy is one way children have of regulating tensions and experimenting with the real world.
Next month we will use emotional theory to tackle an interesting, important, and complicated topic: "Bias, Prejudice, and Violence."
REFERENCES FOR INTERESTED READERS
Amabile TM (1996). Creativity in Context. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Basch MF (1988). Understanding Psychotherapy: The Science Behind the Art. New York: Basic Books.
Brown S (2009). Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. New York: Avery (Penguin).
Browne J (2002). Charles Darwin: The Power of Place. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Demos EV (1995). Exploring Affect: The Selected Writings of Silvan S. Tomkins. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Gomberoff E (2013). Playing the game the child allots. Int J Psychoanal 94: 67-81.
Lang F (2007). Play in the psychoanalytic situation. Journal American Psychoanalytic Association 55: 937-948.
Pink DH (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York: Riverhead Books (Penguin).
Russell B, Wyatt W (1960). Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind (First edition). Cleveland: World Publishing Co.
White RW (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review 66: 297-333.
Winnicott DW (1960). Ego distortion in terms of true and false self. In The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment: Studies in the Theory of Emotional Development, 1965 (pp. 140-152). New York: International Universities Press.
Winnicott DW (1971). Playing and Reality. London: Routledge.
ARTICLES OF THE MONTH
Brusatte, Stephen L (2017). Taking Wing: A Remarkable Fossil Record of the Dinosaurs that Led to Birds Reveals How Evolution Produces Entirely New Kinds of Organisms. Scientific American 316: 49-55.
Scientists have known for some time now that birds evolved from dinosaurs and are in fact a subgroup of dinosaurs. A rich fossil record of feathered dinosaurs discovered in China and elsewhere documents in detail the dramatic transformation of behemoth terrestrial dinosaurs into small, flight-capable birds.
New techniques for analyzing fossils have enabled researchers to reconstruct how the distinctive bird body plan came together. The results indicate the group’s hallmark traits emerged piecemeal over tens of millions of years, for purposes other than those they serve today.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that major evolutionary transitions proceed gradually, not rapidly.
Durrant JE, Ensom R (2017). Twenty-five years of Physical Punishment Research: What Have We Learned? J Korean Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 28: 20-24.
Over the past quarter century, research on physical punishment has proliferated. Almost without exception, these studies have identified physical punishment as a risk factor in children’s behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and brain development. At the same time, the United Nations has established that physical punishment constitutes a breach of children’s basic human rights to protection and dignity. Together, research findings and human rights standards have propelled profound global change. To date, 51 countries have prohibited all physical punishment of children. In this article, we review the literature on physical punishment within its historical context, and provide recommendations for health professionals working with families.
BOOKS OF THE MONTH
The Developmental Science of Early Childhood
Author: Claudia M. Gold, M.D.
New York: W.W. Norton, 2017
This is a fine book which translates developmental concepts into parent-child relationships and everyday life. Dr. Gold begins with Donald Winnicott and focuses on four principles: primary maternal preoccupation; the true self; the holding environment; and the good-enough mother.
Chapters include: “Attachment and Mentalization;” “Temperament, Sensory Processing, and Related Concepts;” and “How Relationships Change the Brain.”
Freedom to Choose: Two Systems of Self-Regulation
Jack Novick and Kerry Kelly Novick
This is a marvelous book for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and anyone interested in the human condition. It contrasts open-system responses with closed-system responses to all phases of life, and relates these conceptualizations to the various aspects of therapy. These views are consistent with affect theory and the relationships between positive and negative affects.
The Available Parent: Radical Optimism In Raising Teens and Tweens
John Duffy, M.D.
Berkeley, CA: Cleis Press, 2011
This is a wonderful book about the processes and interactions between teens and parents. John Duffy is very insightful and helpful about the developmental dynamics which occur during adolescence. His sections on “What Never Works” and “What Always Works” are classics.
Playful Parenting: An Exciting New Approach to Raising Children That Will Help You Nurture Close Connections, Solve Behavior Problems, and Encourage Confidence
Lawrence J. Cohen, Ph.D.
New York: Balantine Books, Crown Publishing, 20017
This classic focuses on play—in essence the positive affects of interest (curiosity) and enjoyment—to enhance development and child-parent relationships.
How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
Joanna Faber and Julie King
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007
This is a terrific book along the lines of How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk. The important of understanding feelings is highlighted.
Parent Speak: What’s Wrong with How We Talk to Our Children—and What to Say Instead
Jennifer Lehr
New York: Workman, 2016
This is another of an increasing number of good “parenting” books which use development and affect theory to understand parent-child relationships and the inner world of children.
About Paul C. Holinger, MD, MPH
Dr. Holinger is Faculty, Training/Supervising Analyst (Child/Adolescent and Adult), and former Dean at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. He is also Professor of Psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and a Founder of the Center for Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.
His work includes articles and books on psychiatric epidemiology and public health (including suicide, homicide, and population trends over time), and infant and child development (including What Babies Say Before They Can Talk).
Copyright @2017 by Paul C. Holinger, MD, MPH
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