Table Of ContentPLAY: PSYCHOANALYTIC
PERSPECTIVES, SURVIVAL AND
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Is play only a children’s activity? How is the spontaneous play of adults
expressed? What is the difference between ‘play’ and ‘game’? What function
does play have during war?
Play: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Survival and Human Development explores the
importance of play in the life of the individual and in society. Most people associate
psychoanalysis with hidden and ‘negative’ instincts, like sexuality and aggressiveness,
but very seldom with ‘positive urges’ such as the importance of love and empathy, and
almost never with play. Play, which occupies a special place in our mental life, is not
merely a children’s activity. In both children and adults, the lack of play or the
incapacity to play almost always has a traumatic cause – this book shows also the
crucial importance of play in relation to survival in warfare and during traumatic
times.
In this book Emilia Perroni argues that whether we regard play as a spontaneous
creation or whether we see it as an enjoyable activity with defi ned rules (a game), it is
impossible to conceive human existence and civilization without it. The papers
collected in this book are the results of the research offered on the subject of play by
several Israeli therapists from different psychoanalytic schools including Freudian,
Jungian, Kleinian, Winnicottian and Self-Psychology. Other contributions are from
Israeli researchers and academics from various fi elds such as literature, music, art,
theatre and cinema, contemporary psychoanalysis and other disciplines.
Play: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Survival and Human Development offers new ways to
think about, and understand, play as a search for meaning, and as a way of becoming
oneself. This book will be of interest to researchers, therapists, parents, teachers and
students who are interested in the application of psychoanalytic theory to their fi elds
including students of cultural studies, such as art, music and philosophy.
Emilia Perroni is a clinical psychologist and is a supervisor at the School of
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the University of Tel Aviv and the Bar Ilan
University. She has a private practice in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv. She is a member
of the Israeli Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and the Israeli Association
of Psychotherapy, an associate member of the Israel Institute of Jungian Psychology
and research fellow at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem.
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PLAY: PSYCHOANALYTIC
PERSPECTIVES,
SURVIVAL AND HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
Edited by Emilia Perroni
Main translators Jeff Green and
Peter Gandolfi
First published 2014
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 Emilia Perroni
The right of Emilia Perroni to be identifi ed as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Play : psychoanalytic perspectives, survival and human
development / edited by Emilia Perroni.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Play—Psychological aspects. 2. Psychoanalysis.
I. Perroni, Emilia.
BF717.P58 2013
155—dc23 2012040050
ISBN: 978-0-415-68207-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-68208-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-54718-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Garamond 3
by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
TO PETER AND MIKO
WITH LOVE
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CONTENTS
Contributors x
Preface to the English Edition xii
Foreword xiv
Shmuel Erlich
General Introduction xvi
Acknowledgments xxvi
PART I
The origins of play and the play space 1
1 Listening 3
Introduction: On listening—Emilia Perroni 3
Listening in parenting and therapy as a life-giving container and
as preparation for the capacity to play—Yael Ofarim 5
Hearing, listening, being attentive and everything
in between—Mira Zakai 16
2 Psychoanalysis and play 28
Introduction: Play from Freud to Winnicott—Emilia Perroni 28
Play as a world of magic and drama: Winnicott’s ideas about play
and their application to children’s psychotherapy—Liora Lurie 33
Psyche or soul in psychoanalysis: Towards the conceptualization of
play as a psychoanalytic transcendental selfobject—Raanan Kulka 47
3 Space and play 62
Introduction: Play as a movement of the soul: Some thoughts on
order and disorder—Emilia Perroni 62
Rites and games for creating sacred holy space—Avi Bauman 65
The dream’s navel and the hunt in the forest: Comments on the
structure of space—Itamar Levy 75
vii
CONTENTS
PART II
Play, war and survival 85
4 Survival, motherhood and play 87
Introduction: Some observations on the exhibition “There Are No
Childish Games” at the Holocaust Museum of Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem—Emilia Perroni 87
Playing in the shadow of the Holocaust: Memories from a hiding place –
A personal testimony—Yael Rosner 91
Creativity and play in the shadow of war: A discussion of
The Notebook by Agota Kristof—Doreet Hopp 103
5 War and play 115
Introduction: The concept of enemy—Emilia Perroni 115
Why war? Between transformational and terminal links in
the fi eld of therapeutic play and beyond—Gabriela Mann 118
Images of war and images of peace in sand-play therapy—
Rina Porat and Bert Meltzer 133
PART III
Play and fatherhood 155
6 Fathers and sons 157
Introduction: Fatherhood or motherhood?—Emilia Perroni 157
Dedalus and Icarus: Thoughts on relations between fathers and
adolescent sons—Shmuel Bernstein 160
Father’s truth-and-lies game: On Peter Weir’s
The Truman Show—Yael Munk 172
PART IV
Play and the theater arts 181
7 The theater and play 183
Introduction: To act and to tell—Emilia Perroni 183
Children and theater—Rami Bar Giora 186
The actor as eternal child: The role of play in the
training of actors—Noam Meiri 197
viii
CONTENTS
8 Play and masquerading 210
Introduction: The play of the soul behind the mask—
Emilia Perroni 210
The mask—Jacob Raz 212
Carnival: The return to chaos—Micha Ankory 216
Afterword: On a personal note—Emilia Perroni 221
Additional Bibliography 223
Index 227
ix
