Eros, Play and Death in Plato

In “The Relation of the Poet to Day-dreaming,” Freud contends that in “play” children construct an imaginary world clearly distinguished from the real world yet very serious. Adult day-dreaming in fantasy is a continuation of such play, but the adult is compelled to conceal his play because it seems merely childish. Imaginative, artistic creation is another form of play, characterized by the addition of aesthetic pleasure derived from formal elements. Freud concludes that the increment of pleasure helps “release yet greater pleasure arising from deeper sources in the mind.” He calls this “fore-pleasure” and suggests that “the true enjoyment of literature proceeds from the release of tensions in our minds.” 1 In his reexaminaron of play, R. Wäelder defines it as a process by which the child “constantly works over and, as it were, assimilates piecemeal an experience which was too large to be assimilated instantly at one swoop.” Play aims at “assimilation of the mass of excitations from the outer world, which affect the organism too severely or too suddenly to permit of their immediate disposal.” 2 In addition to assimilation of disagreeable experience, instinctual gratification is derived from the act of play itself. Play thus includes adaptation of excessive energy aroused by external stimulation as well as release of tension built up in deeper levels of the organism. And along with these processes goes inherent pleasure, which may be tied to highly refined aesthetic experience.3

In this paper, I propose to examine some aspects of the expression of erotic impulses through “play” in Greek culture and especially in the Platonic dialogues.