Editors' Introduction

In the winter of 1999, the editors were approached by a generous donor—who modestly wished to remain anonymous—with the suggestion that our Journal, together with the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, devise a means of honoring the work of Erma Brenner, the creator of the unique play therapy program known as the “Small House.” The idea of a prize essay contest spontaneously generated itself, along with the topic, “The Psychoanalytic Aspects of the Play State.” The brochure describing the contest, the play state, and the work of Erma Brenner, is reproduced in the pages immediately following this introduction. The rest of this special issue contains the happy results of the contest: a wonderful collection of papers, each of which takes up a different aspect of the play state with originality and vividness of clinical detail. The Honorable Mention papers were all so good, in fact, that we could not bear to omit any one of them, and so for this occasion we have expanded our format to a double issue. We congratulate all of the authors on their fine work. In particular we salute our winner, Dr. John Rosegrant, who in his excellent paper, “The Psychoanalytic Play State,” makes an interesting contribution toward understanding what happens between a unique pair of playmates, the child and the adult therapist. Other papers take up other types of playmates and other varieties of play—but without further discussion we will let the prize paper and all the others engage our readers in a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

We are fortunate also to be able to include in this issue a valuable contribution by Erma Brenner, presented at a combined meeting of the Parent-Child Center and the Child Analysis Committee, on “Psychoanalysis and Play,” in which she describes the origins of her interest in play and the creation of the Small House. Readers will find in this paper vivid clinical illustrations that demonstrate why the Small House continues to grow in reputation among therapists and