The result of a collaboration of psychoanalysts and others who met over several years to study the many meanings of play, this book is designed to contribute to the broader field of knowledge about the emotional development and inner resources of children. Written primarily for therapists, educators, and clinicians, it is divided into three major sections. The first section provides a historical and theoretical frame of reference for considering the crucial subject of play. The second section deals with the clinical dimensions of play, and the third section, with developmental considerations. The papers in each of these sections point out how play reflects inner life, tensions, and responses to internal and external challenges, and how play can be a therapeutic mediator and help to move development forward. The 19 papers are: (1) "Psychoanalytic Views of Children's Play" (S. Marans and others); (2) "From Play to Playfulness in Children and Adults" (A. Solnit); (3) "Playing: Technical Implications" (P. Neubauer); (4) "To Play or Not To Play" (D. Battin); (5) "Conceptual Worlds: Play and Theater in Child Psychoanalysis" (P. Cohen and M. Cohen); (6) "Born Blind: Playing in a Sighted World" (A. Colonna and A. Solnit); (7) "Play and the Construction of Gender in the Oedipal Child" (E.K. Dahl); (8) "Cookies for the Emperor: The Multiple Functions of Play in the Analysis of an Early Adolescent Boy" (R. King); (9) "Verbalization and Play in the Treatment of a Five-Year-Old Boy" (L. Levinson); (10) "Play: Its Role in Child Analysis, Its Fate in Adult Analysis" (E. Mahon); (11) "From Enactment to Play to Discussion: The Analysis of a Young Girl" (S. Marans); (12) "Play, Dream, Fantasy, and Enactment in Bornstein's 'Obsessional Child,' Then and Now" (M. Ostow); (13) "The Developmental Dimensions of Play during Treatment: Conceptual Overview" (S. Abrams); (14) "Play, Parenthood, and Creativity" (E. Mahon); (15) "Play and Illusion" (S. Ritvo); (16) "Play Modes in Child Analysis" (J. Herzog); (17) "Childhood Play and Adult Life" (M. Bergmann); (18) "Aggressivity in Play: Discussions with Oedipal Children" (S. Marans and others); and (19) "Play: 'Time to Murder and Create'" (S. Ablon). (ET)