The Psychoanalytic Play State

Child psychoanalysts are increasingly aware that the play of child patients may be therapeutic even when it is not interpreted. In this paper, I present the idea that the psychoanalytic play state introduces tension into the transitional experience that is typical of play, while providing the opportunity to resolve this tension in enhanced transitional experience. In transitional experience, the internal world and the external object are not clearly distinguished. During psychoanalytic play, the psychic power of the internal world is intensified via transferences and displacements, and the psychic power of the external object is intensified via the play taking place with a special, important grown-up—the analyst. The resulting heightened tension between internal and external may be resolved through mutual play. Such enhanced transitional experience may be therapeutic in its own right, and may facilitate numerous other therapeutic functions of play. For children who have difficulty creating transitional experience, the heightened tension between internal and external realities motivates greater development of this capacity. Case examples are used to illustrate these ideas.