Introduction

Since Freud's publication of “Little Hans,” advances in psychoanalytic technique and theory have transformed our clinical work with children. Contributions by Anna Freud, Melanie Klein, and Donald Winnicott have influenced psychoanalytic play therapy and broadened the scope of practice with children. As contemporary psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic social work clinicians, we often find ourselves responding to misapprehensions and distortions about psychoanalytic theory and treatment created or promoted in the popular culture. Our clinical practices are subject to the disruptive influence of managed mental health care and, with the ascendancy of biological psychiatry, increasing reliance on psychoactive drugs in the treatment of children, often in the absence of sound research support.

In this international compilation, which includes contributions from Canada, Greece, and Italy, as well as the United States, eight articles explore developmental, theoretical, and clinical themes in work with children. Focusing on diverse populations and a variety of treatment settings, the authors present compelling clinical cases and research that, collectively, demonstrate the efficacy and relevance of psychoanalytic ideas in the context of play therapy.

Play is a significant process in child development and possesses multiple meanings and functions for children in everyday life as well as in the therapeutic encounter. Indeed, much of the therapeutic encounter occurs through play in therapies with children. Recently, there has been a good deal of discourse on this subject and whether play, independent of interpretation, is sufficient to promote change and progressive development.

Denia G. Barrett (Illinois), author of the first article, “In and Out of the Displacement: The Roles of Interpretation and Play in Work with Children,” takes this debate up by focusing on play as a form of displacement

in child treatment. She wonders if contemporary technical approaches fall short of moving