Play in the psychoanalytic setting: Ego capacity, ego state, and vehicle for intersubjective exchange.
The psychoanalysis of an 8-year-old boy who does not play is presented to illustrate the centrality of the "state of playing" for meaning-making and communication in treatment. Developmental research links affect regulation, narcissistic balance, and the capacity for make-believe to the early inter subjective exchange between mother and infant. The intersubjective dialogue between patient and analyst in the "state of playing" is a crucial component of child analysis and its absence both reflects and compounds ego vulnerability in the child and presents a daunting technical challenge to the analyst.
Gilmore
Karen
K
Child Division, Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, USA.
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010989:Play Therapy; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy