Play is a communication between two persons. Understanding play in psychoanalytic psychotherapy opens new perspectives from which to perceive

and understand the interaction between analyst and patient. Disturbances in the ability to play manifest themselves in the collapse of the dialectic of reality and fantasy in the space of playing and the potential space. Different forms of successful play and of disturbed playing ability are described: play in development, curative play, play getting out of control, and post-traumatic play.