Psycho-Analytic Reflections on the Development of Ball Games, Particularly Cricket1

One could argue that games, a substitute for warfare, have become one of modern warfare's opponents: sprung from Homeric conflict, they recall a very old-fashioned fighting, the pitting of one body with another. Greek athletes in classical times battled nude. At the Olympic and other panhellenic games, none the less, there were races for men in armour. It is significant that these were among the few events for which Spartans were encouraged to enter: whereas more than one competitive game was played by youths at Sparta itself, the Spartan authorities were not otherwise in favour of such triumphant exertion with no killing of the state's enemies in view; nor were the Lancastrian, nor the Tudor governments in England where football was repeatedly proscribed. The church has been hostile to popular sports until recently: the best time for games is on Sunday.

It is obvious that considerable aggression may be discharged innocuously by games and that a corresponding masochism achieves an outlet also. The loser, we say, is beaten, and very often by himself as well as by his opponent. During any close lawn tennis match one is likely to observe what appears to be a compensatory losing that balances luck, even dishonesty, or hard-won gain; for instance, the player who finally breaks through his opponent's service, often immediately loses his own, that is to say, his opponent effects at once a similar break-through: he, for his part, has been inspired, in that guilt was assuaged by his previous loss. Each point in a hard match epitomizes perhaps a triumph, perhaps disaster, disappointment, frustration and other emotions which, in turn, influence subsequent play. At each turn the player tends to be dominated by a different inner object; for games are a continuous test of qualities in a fluctuating confidence: the opponent senses, and seeks to redouble, humiliation and doubt. No less than children, adults at play harp on the vagaries of life and death. In ball games