Based on the view that play is profoundly mutual and social, this book compiles chapters by distinguished psychoanalysts, clinical psychologists, social workers, and developmental psychologists, who offer a rich, integrative view of the many dimensions of early play as it occurs among peers, between parent and child, and in the context of therapy. Many of the chapters either implicitly or explicitly argue that play is not "just" about imagination, but about the possibility or the defeat of intimacy. Finally, the chapters counter the view of play as autistic or simply self-expressive, and instead propose that in play, children learn to negotiate meaning, using the opportunities and materials a culture makes available. The chapters organized under three headings: "Affect in Symbolization,""Relationships and Symbolization," and "Differences and Distortions in Symbolic Functioning." The chapters are: (1) "Representational Elaboration and Differentiation: A Clinical-Quantitative Approach to the Assessment of 2- to 4-Year-Olds" (Stanley I. Greenspan and Alicia F. Lieberman); (2) "The Relation between Anxiety and Pretend Play" (Malcolm W. Watson); (3) "Play, Cure, and Development: A Developmental Perspective on the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Young Children" (W. George Scarlett); (4) "Constructing Metaphors: The Role of Symbolization in the Treatment of Children" (Jan Drucker); (5) "Making Meaning and Making Believe: Their Role in the Clinical Process" (Arietta Slade); (6) "The Leaving Game, or I'll Play You and You Play Me: The Emergence of Dramatic Role Play in 2-Year-Olds" (Elsa First); (7) "Self-Other Action Play: A Window into the Representational World of the Infant" (Anni Bergman and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt); (8) "Play: A Context for Mutual Regulation within Mother-Child Interaction" (Lorraine McCune, Donna DiPane, Ruth Fireoved, and Mary Fleck); (9) "Windows on Social Worlds: Gender Differences in Children's Play Narratives" (Louisa B. Tarullo); (10) "He's a Nice Alligator: Observations on the Affective Organization of Pretense" (Greta G. Fein and Patricia Kinney); (11) "Symbolic Development in Children with Down Syndrome and in Children with Autism: An Organizational, Developmental Psychopathology Perspective" (Dante Cicchetti, Marjorie Beeghly, and Bedonna Weiss-Perry); (12) "Development of Symbolic Play in Deaf Children Aged 1 to 3" (Elsa J. Blum, Barbara C. Fields, Helen Scharfman, and Diana M. Silber); (13) "Play and Narrative in Inhibited Children: A Longitudinal Case Study" (Lou-Marie Kruger and Dennie Palmer Wolf); and (14) "Symbolic Play in the Interactions of Young Children and Their Mothers with a History of Affective Illness: A Longitudinal Study" (Elizabeth C. Tingley). Each chapter contains references. (HTH)