Play and therapeutic action. Multiple perspectives

Children's play that goes unanalyzed within a psychoanalysis, yet leads to therapeutic change, is contrasted with interpreted play that leads to conscious insight. The therapeutic and development facilitating effects of unanalyzed play suggest that substantial analytic work goes on unconsciously. Technical issues arise, therefore, if play is conceptualized as a therapeutic force in its own right. Developmental considerations and inhibitions in play become greater considerations in analytic technique. Two clinical vignettes from the analyses of latency-age girl and boy are presented to illustrate unanalyzed play as an agent in development and mastery of anxieties.