As a Language of Expression: Play

When we hear the word Play, the first definition that often comes to mind is that of an activity reserved for children. In this essay, I will approach Play from two perspectives: first, as the way a child expresses their world of meaning; second, as the role of Play and playfulness in expanding the boundaries of the adult self.

To understand the world of children, we must first recognize how abstract the concepts of the adult world truly are for them. For children, the social boundaries, rules, and things that must be known about life are so complex and demanding to learn that they need to reconfigure and internalize them. As they internalize, they begin to grasp; as they grasp, they begin to belong. The child makes meaning through Play; without Play, they remain distant from the skills required to integrate their life experiences. In Play, the child prepares as a mother, applies makeup, or as a father, plays an instrument, nurtures, fights, falls, wins. In this way, they do not merely repeat what they observe, but re-stage it in their own world of meaning. Play, as an unconscious expression, is the outward form of all repressed desires, emotions, and inner conflicts. Children can spend all their time in Play, fully dedicating themselves to it. This devotion transforms and develops the child’s psychological structure that regulates their relationship with reality. Thus, for the child, Play is a tool of emotional regulation: it soothes them in the face of situations they cannot manage and offers a safe space for emotional stabilization. The English psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott (1971) calls this the transitional space. The transitional space provides the child with a safe area in which they can Play between reality and fantasy. It is both a structure in which the child connects their inner experiences to the external world and a relational bridge that supports them in managing difficult emotions. Observing a child’s Play opens the door for us to recognize their world and their representations of life.

But what role does Play hold in the world of an adult? The rigid laws of the adult world often make us forget that every person was once a child who coped with those demands through Play. If for the child Play is a way of constructing the representations of life, for the adult Play and playfulness serve as a fundamental function in coping with reality and keeping creativity alive. Winnicott (1971) suggests that in adulthood we fill this transitional space with art, culture, and creativity, building a bridge with reality. Seeking creative expression in adulthood, being part of activities or spaces that allow meaningful interaction, is essential for individuals to experience their authentic self and to regulate emotions. Amidst rules and laws, it is within these symbolic spaces of Play that adults can renew themselves through creativity—producing, enjoying, regulating, and expanding.

In this sense, Winnicott’s view that “Play is therapy itself” strongly rejects the notion that Play is something we must bid farewell to in childhood. Children create Play. Each time, they Play as if for the very first time—excited, creative, full of discovery and passion. To take up our hidden realities with the same seriousness with which a child takes up their Play, and to integrate our creativity and playfulness with our self, may be the very key to enlivening the individual at the edges of adulthood. Winnicott writes: “It is a joy to be hidden, but a disaster not to be found.” When the hidden creative space within us is not discovered, it does not vanish; it merely loses its capacity to be sustained because it remains unseen. The transitional space to which Winnicott points, especially in Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT), aims to provide this unique and creative passage both for children and adults. DMT bridges inner experience with the external world, through the individual’s primary instrument of contact with reality: the body. Within the Play created through bodily movement, repressed feelings and desires, traumas, and defenses find the possibility of somatic expression (Leventhal, 2010). It becomes a space that integrates the emotional and bodily expressions of adults, enabling them to understand their inner conflicts and come closer to their sense of self.

Creating space for Play is one of the most essential tools for discovering the layers of the self. It is holding onto the thread that leads us toward the unconscious and our inner representations. Just as each child’s Play language is unique, so too does each adult have their own space of Play and capacity for creativity. This space, which we so often push aside under the rigid laws of adulthood, is the very one that opens the door to our authentic self. Dance/Movement Therapy invites the individual precisely here—into the Play of the body: to approach the unconscious through movement, to give voice to traumas and desires through a bodily language, to reconnect with their authentic existence.

What lies within your creative space? What images come to mind when you imagine it? With this essay, I invite you to approach your own curiosity and your own space of Play.

References

Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Playing and reality. Routledge.

Leventhal, D. (2010). The body in play: Embodiment and psychotherapeutic practice. Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, 5(2), 123–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/17432979.2010.504050