IN THIS ESSAY I FOCUS ON the ways in which playfulness can be of value in the establishment, maintenance, and advancement of a viable analytic process; and can serve as a measure of analytic achievement as well.

Literature from all psychoanalytic schools of thought, citing clinical data, indicates that specific kinds of more direct affective engagement on the part of the analyst can be constructive in establishing an analytic possibility in some instances in which it might not ordinarily exist, or in advancing the analytic effort beyond what might have been possible otherwise. There is a growing body of data documenting the fact that to keep the work alive and vital with more disturbed patients, or even to establish an analytic relationship, there are times when the analyst must be innovative and creative. I believe playfulness can be useful toward this end, and that it is an underused medium, the potential value of which may not be fully appreciated.