The author examines the play state as a necessary economic outcome of the emotional conditions of childhood. And while prominence of the play state recedes along the developmental line from play to work, its importance in buffering novel experience throughout the life span is a helpful touchstone in adult analytic work. It is there that exploration and novelty can reemerge with some of the intensity of an earlier time of life, and the healthy presence of the play state signals the potential for renewed psychic development.