In child analysis, the child's play represents his free associations. It is illustrated here how an 8-year old boy in analysis expresses his early experiencies through play, and how the analyst, together with the patient, reconstructs aspects of the child's psychological past. The child creates a role-relationship which makes the analyst participate in the play and assigns her a specific rôle. In this rôle, the analyst has to combine her free-floating attention with a free-floating responsiveness in the play. Based on her countertransference, the analyst makes tentative constructions in the play, by elaborating and expanding the affects in the rôle which she has been given. The child recognises the affects as his own and confirms them through his behaviour and in the play. The child is given a connecting link between unconscious affects and his current dilemmas.