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Catherine Bates, a teacher of English and Comparative Literary Studies, presents a new consideration of play. Well-informed on a variety of subjects, and particularly (for this book) in psychoanalysis, philosophy, and literature, she questions what she calls the traditional understanding of play. Based on the work of Huizinga in Homo Ludens , Caillois in Man, Play and Games and Winnicott in Playing and Reality , the essence of this theory is that play brings order out of chaos and through that ordering, art, civilization, and the creation of a better world are achieved.
Bates's altenate theory of play is attuned to current philosophical, literary, and psychoanalytic vogues. What the modem theories hold in common is an ironic spirit, one that is at odds with “the myth of social and psychological progress” which characterizes the classical, more accepted version of play. Although writers from all the disciplines cited above (as well as others) have contributed to this development, two theorists are most important for her argument. These are Freud and Nietzsche.
Freud in Jokes and Their Relationship to the Unconscious helped develop the concept of ordering and creating a better world which are central characteristics of the traditional theory. He believed that primitive emotions were self-indulgent with no regard for their impact on others. Therefore, for the individual and the world to survive, severe repression of those basic instincts was necessary. This was implemented by parents, later other people and social institutions, and also by the individual's conscience.
Freud theorized that jokes allowed an expression (a release from repression) of objectionable impulses, but in a socially acceptable way. They were a form of art. Winnicott and other psychoanalytic theorists elaborated and extended these concepts.
However, Frederic Nietzsche questioned this view and shocked the world by announcing in 1882 that God was dead. What Nietzsche meant was that the story of the dev