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The party game Truth or Dare reflects a principle that is at work in all forms of play. It is the paradoxical act of freely choosing a condition of constraint. If one person asks, “truth or dare?” and the other replies by affirming either of those two conditions, then what follows is a discursive structure in which what is liberating is the same thing as what is constraining. The Mobius strip of constraint and freedom is the essential character of play and it permeates all cultural discourse.
In Truth or Dare, ordinary speech rules are subordinated to a fundamental rule, and the ordinary right to refuse either an indelicate question or command is freely suspended for as long as one is playing. The paradoxical structure of play is that freely choosing a binding rule generates a new form of freedom, with characteristics determined by the particular rule.
The principle of subordinating subsequent speech acts to a fundamental rule is shared by psychoanalysis. Indeed, although psychoanalytic treatment is not in fact an instance of play, since it is intended for a purpose other than the enjoyment of the act itself, it does draw significantly from the structure of play. The logic of play and game theory is deeply woven into the fabric of the psychoanalytic act, as has been noted by many analysts.
A defining feature of the psychoanalytic rule is the constraint to speak without constraints. One is bound by the rule to speak