From: The Art of Play: Helping Adults Reclaim Imagination and Spontaneity, by Adam Blatner, M.D. & Allee Blatner.
(Published by Routledge, 1997, now out of print and being revised into 3rd edition. ) Comments welcome: Email to adam@blatner.com
Chapter 1: A PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF PLAY
Revised September 2, 2008 (To see other chapters, go to Table of Contents)
Adam Blatner & Allee Blatner
The value of imaginative, sociodramatic play may be understood more fully in the context of the union of a holistic, integrative psychology with a philosophy that focuses on the creative process as a central element. The connecting link between the two is the phenomenon of spontaneity, that particular quality of mind in nature which allows for novelty and creativity to emerge.
A Developmental Theory of Play
We describe a number of psychological dynamics in terms of the roles that are played. It’s a way of thinking that allows for the great variety of aspects of life and of the personality. In the following pages, we’ll present reasons for the importance of such phenomena as excitement, playfulness, celebration, delight, and enjoyment through creativity. These phenomena haven’t been given enough emphasis in our psychologies and our culture, and need to be recognized as vital channels of motivation, self-expression, socialization, and skill building. (Actually, the movement towards positive psychology has gained a good deal of attention since 1997, and this supports our efforts; however, The Art of Play focuses this broader goal more in the arenas of imaginative dramatic enactment as a recreational form and conscious role playing as a component in everyday life.)
Working from the dramaturgical model that notes the usefulness of viewing much of psycho-social life from the metaphor of “all the world’s a stage,” the unit of this model is the role concept (Blatner, 2007). Another especially useful idea is to note that healthy development involves a process of role expansion in many dimensions.
For example, in addition to (or perhaps instead of) the psychoanalytic classification of psycho-sexual phases of development, we present psycho-social phases. Instead of thinking of humans as going through oral, anal, phallic, and oedipal stages, we would propose in addition (or perhaps even instead) four other stages: the dermal, playful, useful, and cooperative stages. (These vaguely correlate with the psycho-sexual stages in age, but reflect a more multi-dimensional process of role expansion.) These stages emphasize more interpersonal and collective dynamics. In addition, they offer a balancing alternative to what we feel has become a bias towards individualism in much of psychology (Wallach & Wallach, 1983).
Looking at development from the viewpoint of health rather than sickness also seems to make sense, because the themes they involve actually continue! People don’t grow out of the need for touching, holding, playing, finding their own way to feel useful and socially connected.
The Dermal Phase
The ancient Greek word root for skin is “derma,” and babies need to feel themselves held, cuddled, stroked, touched. They feel through their skin and deep pressure receptors. This phase also recognizes other touch-like sensations such as balance, heat, coolness, and so forth.
The skin is the largest organ in the human body, and as the experiments of Harlow with the baby monkeys in the 1960s demonstrated, physical contact is more important than mere feeding. Being held, cuddled, caressed, rocked, and other sensual experiences are essential for healthy psychological development. Moreover, in comparison to the oral experience of feeding, the skin offers as rich (if not richer) a source of pleasurable social bonding, sensuality, and discovery (Field, 2001). Looking at child development from this perspective acknowledges the significant role of fathers, older siblings, and other members of the intimate community in healthy maturation.
The Playful Phase
The next phase, the playful, overlaps with and emerges out of the dermal, occupying around the fifth to the twenty-fourth month and beyond. Infants then begin to integrate their own initiative with the richness of human relationships. In the healthiest forms of this phase, there are many opportunities for mutual adventures, balanced experiences of activity and receptivity on both sides, introduction of novelty and allowance of time for assimilation, variations of pacing and intensity (Stern, 1985). Sensitivity, time, and empathy are required on the part of the parent, and these pleasant interactions for the infant become the basis for a deep reservoir of pleasure and positive expectations, which in turn give the child strength in dealing with the inevitable frustrations of the coming years. Moreover, play extends the role repertoire to include explorations of song, funny faces, wordplay, and other modes of aesthetic, not directly utilitarian, behavior.
The playful phase corresponds to and reframes the implicit struggle so often associated with the anal stage in analytic theory. From the individualistic focus of a training metaphor in which children must learn to frustrate and control themselves, our playful phase represents the opportunity for cooperative socialization. By using age-specific games that go beyond the physical issue, it introduces to the growing child the idea that there are places for things: for shoes and books and poops and pee. The child can enjoy the mastery in learning to put things where they belong.
Another major category that emerges halfway through this phase is the idea of play, deception, paradox. A baby begins to tease a little, offering things and pulling away with a giggle. And responds with a giggle to having others play this game gently with her. The awareness of “not really” is understood, even if this understanding cannot be clearly articulated. Interestingly, even now I feel that I can’t completely explain the meaning of play—and others have had difficulty also (Sutton-Smith, 1998). Like feelings of fairness, we know it, and we know when it feels like it’s “not play”—but it’s hard to define strictly.
Usefulness
Building upon a healthy playful foundation, the next phases continue to emphasize agreeable socialization rather than individualistic dominance. Extending the play of putting things in the right place, the child becomes aware of participation with people and what people do. Helping feed the pets, clean the table, or sweep the driveway can become enjoyable games that include the feeling of helping, of experiencing being appreciated and thanked. The analytic phallic "Look at me" is incorporated into our "useful" phase and would be stated in a more social context as "How can I help?" (The Montessori Schools approach build on this dynamic.)
Ample opportunities still exist in this schema to validate individuality, in the sense of being recognized for one's originality or special blend of strengths and weaknesses. It is important to differentiate this from an overemphasis on individualism, in which the boundary of mutuality is broken and a person expects or gets special recognition and privileges even at another's expense. We propose the use of collective play experiences to heighten the healthy elements of self-esteem without promoting subtle pathological narcissism.
Cooperative Stage
The next step, extending further the natural cognitive maturation and socialization process, corresponds to the analytic “Oedipal” stage. Between four and six, children begin to learn to play with more than one other person at a time. The challenge involves joining a small group without being caught up in alliances. The interpersonal dynamic is often much more significant than the intrapsychic experiences involving sexual imagery. This cooperative stage can develop quite smoothly in situations where the previous experiences have been satisfying and the group (or parents) are themselves friendly and inclusive.
For instance, when Adam's son, David, was five, he addressed this stage while the two of them were alone together by announcing to Adam, "I'm going to marry Mommy." Adam answered with mild curiosity and friendliness, "But what about me? I'm already married to Mommy." David thought for a moment, then made a simple synthesis: "Well, I'll marry you, too." Both of them started laughing, the laughter also reflecting David's partial yet implicit knowledge that one can't marry more than one person at a time. As shall be discussed in the next chapter, the playful capacity to celebrate paradox allows for a symbolic yet satisfactory solution to many problems.
A psychology which views human nature as being essentially collective, as well as individual, is an important tool in learning to think in terms of how we can contribute to preventing or resolving a number of our contemporary personal and societal problems (Blatner, 2004). Another advantage to the role concept as a basis for a modern psychology is its implicit invitation to become creative and flexible with the roles we use in our lives. A great deal of healthy functioning can be developed through practice in responsibly shifting roles. Play's natural expansion of the range of roles we have available serves to broaden and lubricate the process of human interaction.
Spontaneity
One of the pivotal concepts in relation to play is that of spontaneity. The concept of spontaneity is a bit elusive because it involves the process of transcending structure itself—the process of questioning definitions and making redefinitions (Blatner, 2000, pp. 80-87). In that sense, spontaneity partakes of the paradoxical nature of play (and this paradoxical quality is described in Chapter 2.)
If you find yourself wondering if you're spontaneous enough to explore improvisational playfulness, be assured that (a) the principles in this book are designed so that you need not feel self-conscious, (b) you'll discover that you've got more access to spontaneity than you might have thought, and (c) your ability to channel spontaneity will develop with practice, just as in other areas requiring cultivation of skills. Everyone has some experience with spontaneity, and it varies in each role and activity. You can learn to expand the function of this process in your life.
Spontaneity involves a quality of mind, the active opening up that accompanies the thinking of a new idea or trying something way. It involves thinking afresh, balancing impulse and restraint, and integrating imagination, reason, and intuition, Spontaneity is the process by which inspiration engenders creativity. It is more than mere impulsivity because it requires some intention to achieve an aesthetic or constructive effect.
Spontaneity also may be understood as the opposite of habit, stereotyped thinking, neurotic compulsive rituals, or transferences (interpersonal patterns that mimic earlier experiences, rather than inter-acting with people and events in the here and now). In being spontaneous, you are open to how the present moment is different from the past, and how the people around you might be able to offer new and more rewarding experiences.
Obviously, and yet worth mentioning, spontaneity is fun. You may discover, however, as you begin to explore sociodramatic play, that you experience some vague anxieties, guilts, or other subtle discomforts. This may be part of what many people have learned about distrusting the pursuit of pleasure. Enjoying pleasure is often partially repressed and somewhat disreputable in our culture. Some of the reasons for this are noted in Chapters 10 through 12 and deserve to be thought about when you decide to begin exploring imaginative play. When things are repressed, they are placed out of reach of consciousness and cannot be updated, refined; thus, they remain undifferentiated, understood at the level of consciousness—often childish—when they were pushed out of awareness. For example, the idea of fun is too often associated with unwholesome types of enjoyment. Our culture tends to pander to the stronger emotions of sex and aggression just as it panders to our taste for stronger flavors of fat, sugar, and salt in junk food. But just as there are wholesome types of food, so also are there wholesome ways to have fun.
The feelings of discomfort associated with play and having fun are further complicated by getting associated with irresponsible frivolity, destructive behaviors, or self-indulgent hedonism. These are actually maladaptive forms of enjoyment and are characterized by feelings of pent-up anger, worthlessness, and rebellion, often in response to oppressive or coercive situations. They are seen in the behaviors of those adolescents who cannot find enjoyable and meaningful involvements in their (compulsory) school, and have joined the epidemic of drug and alcohol abuse (Wigginton, 1985). Thus, when they have time off, or when they drop out, they engage in drug-related short-term attempts at having "fun" which in the long run result in a vacuous boredom.
Therefore, in the presence of all these negative associations, we need to remind ourselves of the large array of deeply enjoyable pleasures to choose from. Activities that are richer in resources, more sustainable, more responsible, and often more social include: the arts, storytelling, having adventures, being useful in creating celebrations, exploring/contemplating nature and spiritual experiences, trying out the full range of sports and games, and informal role-playing activities such as the Art of Play.
Having acknowledged potential obstacles resulting from your own psychosocial inhibitions to play, let's remember that it is fun. Indeed, that may be the simplest definition of play. You can celebrate with delight the discoveries of new potentialities arising out of your unconscious, the magic of allowing the inspiration of the Muses to act through you, the joy of surprise with the events that occur in a receptive, cocreative state of mind, and the deep sense of belonging that occurs when you and others share the intimacy of bringing forth each other's images. Spontaneity then becomes a value as well as a psychological phenomenon and, as such, deserves consideration from a philosophical point of view.
Philosophical Reflections on Having Fun
A modern tradition in philosophy addresses itself to the implications of the possibilities of evolution and the discoveries of modern science. We refer, especially, to the writings of such philosophers as Alfred North Whitehead (1938), Charles Hartshorne (1983), Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1965), and Ken Wilber (2007), among others. What these thinkers share is a view of the universe as an essentially creative process. Our human role in this universe is something similar to the cells in the brain of an evolving, cosmic embryo. As humans learn to relate to each other more harmoniously, it is as if we all are participating in a great process of awakening. I discuss related themes in the 4th (revised) edition of Foundations of Psychodrama. (Blatner, 2000, pp. 66, 81).
Not only are our responsible acts of co-creation included in this process, but also our experiences of learning and enjoyment. This philosophical view is partly based on the validity of the aesthetic component in events both great and small (Skutch, 1986). Another way of saying this is that having fun may be a potentially important part of the way everything operates in the universe.
In order to explore this concept, we invite you to consider the following intuitive exposition, one which may be the way things are: Imagine that pleasure pervades the universe: Every action involves at least a “drop” of experience. Although Whitehead applied this even to the atomic level, we'll focus our illustrations on the realms of those events that involve the generally recognized forms of life. For example, the cricket's "singing" may be a deliciously sensual experience for the creature as it rubs its legs together. One-celled animals in the ocean may be savoring the taste of their food during the brief moments of their ingesting process. And that food consists of even more minute creatures, algae and bacteria, who may be enjoying the sun's warmth as the energy catalyzes their various internal chemical processes.
Purely rational, dry "explanations" of animal behavior shouldn't prevent us from contemplating the possible feelings generated in the course of something being alive. This is not meant to imply animals experience pleasure in the same way humans do, as commonly seen in the anthropomorphic characters in children's stories. Nonetheless il seems presumptuous for us to claim that they don't experience anything, considering the complexity of their behavior. Indeed, we suspect that in some ways human experiences and consciousness are a wonderful complexification of a spectrum of inherent feelings in all life.
If hunger and fear "motivate" certain behaviors, then consider the likelihood of feelings, however brief, when a creature catches its prey, or takes the first bite, or, on the other hand, senses that it has successfully evaded and escaped its potential predator. There is probably a gradient of feeling, a sense of greater dissatisfaction, leading to behavior, leading to a sense of relative satisfaction or pleasure even in the most rudimentary functions of excreting, discovering a richer, more oxygenated environment, or shifting from rest to activity or back again.
The mystery of sex and parenting involves subtle components that deserve contemplation. Beyond the culmination of orgasm, the mating behavior of most animals involves discrimination, preference, and choosing some experiences over others because they appear to offer more fun to the participants. Attraction, courting, nest building, the rearing of offspring, all are enormously complex phenomena which also undoubtedly involve pleasure. Other examples include the singing of many species of birds (Hartshorne, 1992), the strategies and chasing behaviors of some predators, and the building of insect colonies.
A study of biology from the point of view of considering the personal experience of the living creatures themselves can lead to a vivid sense of the aesthetic dimensions pervading existence. In turn, it suggests that the motivation of children and adults toward pleasure is a natural phenomenon. Based on a holistic perspective, the philosophical implications of a living universe which has vivid experiences invites the integration of fun as an important value. Recognizing and honoring fun from these perspectives sets the tone for the rest of our book.
References
Blatner, Adam. (2000). Foundations of psychodrama (4th ed.). New York: Springer.
Blatner, Adam. (2004). The collective in psychology. Retrieved from webpage: http://www.blatner.com/adam/psyntbk/collectv.htm
Blatner, A. (2007). Role dynamics: An integrative approach to psychology and user-friendly language. Retrieved from Webpage: http://www.blatner.com/adam/level2/roletheory.htm
Also: That article links to a bibliography on applied role theory; and there are other papers related to role theory, role analysis, the meta-role, at the www.blatner.com/adam/papers.html website. In the literature, see: Blatner, A. (1991). Role dynamics: A comprehensive theory of psychology. Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Psychodrama & Sociometry, 44 (1), 33-40.
Field, Tiffany. (2003). Touch. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hartshorne, Charles. (1983). Omnipotence and other theological mistakes. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Hartshorne, Charles. (1992). Born to sing: an interpretation and world survey of bird song, Indiana Univ Press. (First published in 1973).
Skutch, A. F. (1986). Life ascending. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Stern, Daniel. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant. New York: Basic Books.
Sutton-Smith, Brian. (2001). The ambiguity of play. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Teilhard de Chardin, P. (1965). Hymn of the universe. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965.
Wallach, M. A., & Wallach, L. (1983). Psychology's sanction for selfishness: The error of egoism in theory and therapy. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman & Co.
Wigginton, E. (1985). Sometimes a shining moment: The foxfire experience-Twenty years teaching in a high school classroom. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1985.
Whitehead, Alfred N. (1938). Modes of thought. New York: The Free Press.
Wilber, K. (2007). The integral vision: a very short introduction to the revolutionary integral approach to life, god, the universe, and everything Boston: Shalnbhala.
Some Further References on Play in Early Childhood. (There are innumerable articles and books that have been written since the last edition. Before that, though, here are a few.)
Christie, J. F. (Ed.). Play and early literacy development. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1991.
Dimidjian, V. J. (Ed.). Play's place in public education for young children. Washington, DC: National EducationAssociation, 1992.
Goldstein, J. H. (Ed.). Toys, play and child development. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Isenberg, J. F, & Jalongo, M. R. Creative expression and play in the early childhood curriculum. New York: Macmillan, 1993. (Chapter on creative drama, pp. 134-170.)
Moyles, J. R. Just playing?: The role and status of play in early childhood education. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1989.
Singer, D. G., & Singer, J. L. The house of make believe: Play and the developing imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Universtiy Press, 1990.
Slade, A., & Wolf, D. P. (Eds.). Children at play: Clinical and developmental approaches to meaning and representation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. .(Many scholarly references.)
Slade, P. Child play: Its importance for human development. London & Bristol, PA: Jessica Kingsley, 1995.