Article
The Psycho-Analytic Play Technique: Its History and Significance
Published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry in April 1955, this paper is Melanie Klein's late retrospect on how she came to analyse children through play. She traces the technique from her first child cases in Budapest and Berlin to her later work, and describes its setting: the playroom, and the small toys kept for each child alone. She treats the child's play as material on a par with the free associations of adults, to be interpreted as they are, the negative transference included. She also sets out how the play technique led her to her theory of early anxieties, of internal objects and of the positions.
Main ideas
- Klein's play technique grew from her first child analyses in Budapest and Berlin and shaped all her later work.
- The analytic setting for a child is a playroom with simple small toys kept for that child alone.
- A child's play is material equal to an adult's free associations, and is interpreted in the same way.
- Interpretation of play includes the negative transference.
- The play technique led Klein to her theory of early anxieties, internal objects and the positions.
What it shows
- 1926
Melanie Klein introduced Play technique
Klein worked out the play technique with her first child patients in Budapest and Berlin and set out its principles in 1926: the child's play, treated like free association, is interpreted directly. In 1955 she looked back on its history and on how it led to her theory.