Play in the Analytic Space

This paper begins from two ideas, separated by roughly a decade, that raise very different but not exclusive priorities regarding the analyst's technique and how an analysis proceeds. Where the first focuses on the analyst and his or her professional attitude, the second draws attention to the setting. Both derive from the foundations of Donald Winnicott's work in his attention to being. I approach this apparent shift through a discussion of two patients from the case histories gathered in Playing and Reality (1971a) and argue that this late work emphasizes the individual complexity that can only emerge through analytic work. It highlights the need for the analyst to meet the patient on their own terms and be prepared to wait for them to arrive at a quality of psychic life through the continuing presence of the analyst. Playing originates in and depends on the patient's capacity to be, and to live from that being, most especially with oneself and only then with others.