Is play only a children’s activity? How
is the spontaneous play of adults expressed? What is the
difference between “play” and “game”? What function does
play have during
war? Play:Psychoanalytic Perspectives,
Survival and Human Development explores the
importance of play in the life of the individual and in
society. Most people associate psychoanalysis with
hidden and “negative” instincts, like sexuality and
aggressiveness, very seldom with “positive urges” like
the importance of love and empathy, and almost never
with play. Play, which occupies a special place in our
mental life, is not merely a children’s activity. Both
in children and adults, the lack of play or the
incapacity to play almost always has a traumatic cause –
this book also shows the crucial importance of play
in relation to the survival in warfare and during
traumatic times. In this book Emilia Perroni argues
that whether we regard play as a spontaneous creation or
whether we see it as an enjoyable activity with defined
rules (a game), that it is impossible to conceive human
existence and civilization without it. The papers
collected in this book are the results of the research
offered on the subject of play by several Israeli
therapists from different psychoanalytic schools
Freudian, Jungian, Kleinian, Winnicottian and
Self-Psychology. Other contributions are
from Israeli researchers and academics from various
fields such as literature, music, art, theatre and
cinema, contemporary psychoanalysis and other
disciplines.
Play:
Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Survival and Human
Development offers new ways to think about, and
understand, play as a search for meaning, and as a way
of becoming oneself. This book will be of interest to
psychoanalysts, researchers, therapists, parents,
teachers and students who are interested in the
application of psychoanalytic theory to their fields
including students of cultural studies, art, music,
philosophy. Emilia Perroni is a clinical
psychologist, supervisor at the School of Psychoanalytic
Psychotherapy at the University of Tel Aviv and the Bar
Ilan University. She has a private practice in Jerusalem
and in Tel Aviv. She is a member of the Israeli
Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, the Israeli
Association of Psychotherapy, she is an
Associated-Member of the Israeli Institute of Jungian
Psychology, and Research Fellow at the Van Leer
Institute in Jerusalem.
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