Psychoanalytic Play: Metapsychology, Field Theory and Theories of Therapeutic Action, an Autobiographical Approach

This article pursues Winnicott’s admonition, “If the patient cannot play, he must be taught, and if the analyst cannot play, no psychotherapy can occur.” Its objective is to build on what has remained incomplete in Winnicott’s bold argument. In doing so, it introduces the idea that psychoanalytic play is at the center of both the theory and clinical practice of psychoanalysis through a) updating psychoanalytic metapsychology, b) reflecting upon multiple field theories, and c) creating a theory of therapeutic action and change premised on the phenomena of drama, narration, and improvisation. This approach conceives of play as the process by which therapy crisscrosses primary and secondary processes of communication, allowing for “possibilities” in the face of “constraints” in a therapy that shifts from being “stuck” (1st Order Change) to moments of an unpredictable, unknown, and spontaneous world that is less familiar to analyst and patient who improvise off-of-and-with their dramatically unfolding co-created narratives.