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Human and animal behavior is traditionally divided into two categories, one serving the survival of the individual, and one serving the preservation of the species through propagation. Freud made this classification the original basis of his theory of instincts. He soon discovered, however, that much of the young animal's or child's behavior does not serve directly either survival or propagation. He called these 'pregenital' erotic activities, including, among others, thumb-sucking, anal stimulation, the pleasurable excitation of the skin, aimless muscular activity, curiosity for its own sake,—all of which have playful, pleasure-seeking connotations within the broad category of sexuality. He characterized these activities, which subjectively have erotic connotations, as immature, pregenital derivatives of the instinctual drive which in its mature genital form leads to reproduction. Greek mythology intuitively recognized this affinity between playfulness and sexuality in representing Eros, the god of both love and play, as a child.
Despite the volume of attention, both precisely descriptive and theoretical, which psychoanalysis has given to these aimless manifestations of sex, authors of our increasingly rationalistic twentieth century, including animal psychologists, have remarkably neglected these nonutilitarian aspects of human and animal behavior. In contrast, nineteenth century philosophers had a great deal to say about play. Outstanding among these are Friedrich Schiller, Herbert Spencer, Jean Paul, Wilhelm Preyer, and particularly Karl Groos.
A profound theory of play was advanced in Schiller's On