If we consider the object of play as a metaphor of cathexis, its gradual construction corresponds to the simultaneous construction of the internal object. This raises questions, between Winnicott and Freud, about the trajectory between what is objectively perceived and what is subjectively conceived, from the transitional object to the wooden reel, as well as about the functions of the primary maternal object in the constitution of the subject’s own stimulus barrier that relies on the movements of desexualization/resexualization of maternal care sustained by the inhibition of aims.