Abstract
This paper presents neurobiological aspects of the therapeutic action of psychoanalytic play therapy. The author contends that play integrates diverse modes of neural processing because of its inherently enactive and verbal nature. Admixtures of new and familiar self/other configurations emerge, simultaneously shaping and fostering integration of procedural and declarative modes of experience. Complex self-other configurations develop in play therapy because of its intrinsic integration of multiple experiential modes. The paper includes an illustration of play treatment with a boy who presented with a disorganized attachment pattern, an attendant deficit in affect regulation, and who manifested frank psychotic symptomatology.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altman, N., Briggs, R., Frankel, J., Gensler, D., & Pantone, P. (2002). Relational child psychotherapy. New York: Other Press.
Aron, L. (1996). A meeting of minds: Mutuality in psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Banich, M. T. (2004). Cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Barish, K. (2004a). What is therapeutic in child therapy? Psychoanalytic Psychology, 21, 385–401.
Barish, K. (2004b). The child therapist’s generative use of self. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 3, 270–284.
Bass, A. (2003). “E” enactments in psychoanalysis: Another medium, another message. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 13, 657–673.
Bayles, M. (2007). Is verbal symbolization a necessary requirement of analytic change? Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 17, 455–477.
Beebe, B., Knoblach, S., Rustin, J., & Sorter, D. (2005). Forms of intersubjectivity in infant and adult treatment. New York: Other Press.
Beebe, B., & Lachmann, F. (1988). The contribution of mother-infant mutual influence to the origins of self- and object representations. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 5, 305–337.
Benjamin, J. (1995). Like subjects, love objects. New Haven, CT: Yale Press.
Black, M. J. (2003). Enactment: Analytic musings on energy, language, and personal growth. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 13, 633–655.
Bonovitz, C. (2004). The cocreation of fantasy and the transformation of psychic structure. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 14, 553–558.
Boston Change Process Study Group (BCPSG). (2002). Non-interpretative mechanisms in psychoanalytic therapy—the ‘something more’ than interpretation. International Gestalt Journal, 25, 37–71.
Boston Change Process Study Group (BCPSG). (2008). Forms of relational meaning: Issues in the relations between the implicit and reflective-verbal domains. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 18, 125–148.
Bromberg, P. M. (1998). Standing in the spaces: Essays on clinical process. trauma, and dissociation. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Bromberg, P. M. (2006). Awakening the dreamer: Clinical journeys. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Bronte, C. (1874). Jane Eyre. New York: Penguin Books.
Bucci, W. (1999). Psychoanalysis and cognitive science. New York: Guilford.
Davis, S. M. (2002). The relevance of Gerald Edelman’s theory of neuronal group selection and nonlinear dynamic systems for psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 22, 814–840.
Edelman, G. M. (2004). Wider than the sky: The phenomenal gift of consciousness. New Haven, CT: Yale University.
Edelman, G. M. (2006). Second nature: Brain science and human knowledge. New Haven, CT: Yale University.
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E., & Target, M. (2004). Affect regulation, mentalization, and the development of the self. New York: Other Press.
Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (1998). Mentalization and the changing aims of child psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 8, 87–114.
Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (2002). Psychoanalytic theories: Perspectives from developmental psychopathology. New York: Brunner-Routledge.
Fosshage, J. L. (2004). The explicit and implicit dance in psychoanalytic change. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 49, 49–65.
Frankel, J. (1998). The play’s the thing: How the essential processes of therapy are seen more clearly in child therapy. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 8, 149–182.
Gainotti, G. (2000). Neuropsychological theories of emotion. In J. C. Borod (Ed.), The neuropsychology of emotion. New York: Oxford University.
Galatzer-Levy, R. M. (2004). Chaotic possibilities: Toward a new model of development. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 85, 419–442.
Gazzaniga, M. S., Ivry, R. B., & Mangun, G. R. (2002). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: WW Norton.
Gergely, G. (2007). The social construction of the subjective self: The role of affect—mirroring, markedness, and ostensive communication in self-development. In L. Mayes, P. Fonagy, & M. Target (Eds.), Developmental science and psychoanalysis. London: Karnac Books.
Ghent, E. (2002). Wish, need, drive: Motive in the light of dynamic systems theory and Edelman’s selectionist theory. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 12, 763–808.
Gopnik, A. (1993). How we know our minds: The illusion of first-person knowledge of intentionality. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16, 1–14.
Gordon, N. S., Burke, S., Akil, H., Panksepp, J., et al. (2003). Socially induced brain fertilization: Play promotes brain derived neurotrophic factor expression. Neuroscience Letters, 341, 17–20.
Hoffman, I. Z. (1998). Ritual and spontaneity in the psychoanalytic process. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Iacoboni, M. (2005). Neural mechanisms of imitation. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 15, 632–637.
Kolb, B., & Wishaw, I. Q. (2003). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology. New York: Worth.
Le Doux, J. (1996). The emotional brain: The mysterious underpinnings of emotional life. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Levenson, E. (1985). The ambiguity of change: An inquiry into the nature of psychoanalytic reality. Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson.
Levy, A. J. (2007). A re-consideration of the therapeutic action of play in the psychodynamic treatment of children. Paper presented at the biannual meeting of the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work, Chicago, Illinois.
Levy, A. J. (2008a). The therapeutic action of play in the psychodynamic treatment of children: A critical analysis. Clinical Social Work Journal, 36, 281–291.
Levy, A. J. (2008b). New approaches to psychodynamic psychotherapy for children with Asperger Syndrome: Reclaiming an essential element in treatment. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, Washington, DC.
Lichtenberg, J. D., Lachmann, F. M., & Fosshage, J. L. (2002). A spirit of inquiry: Communication in psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Liotti, M., & Panksepp, J. (2004). Imaging human emotions and affective feelings: Implications for biological psychiatry. In J. Panksepp (Ed.), Textbook of biological psychiatry. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Loewald, H. W. (1980). Papers on psychoanalysis. New Haven, CT: Yale University.
Lyons-Ruth, K. (1999). The two-person unconscious: Intersubjective dialogue, enactive representation, and the emergence of new forms of relational organization. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 19, 576–617.
Lyons-Ruth, K., Bruschweiler-Stern, N., Harrison, A. M., Morgan, A. C., Nahum, J. P., Sander, L., et al. (1998). Implicit relational knowing: Its role in development and psychoanalytic treatment. Infant Mental Health Journal, 19, 282–289.
Lyons-Ruth, K., & Jacobvitz, D. (1999). Attachment disorganization, unresolved emotional loss, relational violence, and lapses in behavioral and attentional strategies. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 520–554). New York: Guilford.
Marans, S., Mayes, L. C., & Colonna, A. B. (1993). Psychoanalytic views of children’s play. In A. J. Solnit, D. J. Cohen, & P. B. Neubauer (Eds.), The many meanings of play (pp. 9–28). New Haven: Yale University.
Miller, M. L. (2004). Dynamic systems and the therapeutic action of the analyst. In J. Reppen, J. Tucker, & M. A. Schulman (Eds.), Way beyond Freud: Postmodern psychoanalysis observed. London: Open Gate Press.
Mitchell, S. (1988). Relational concepts in psychoanalysis: Integration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
Mitchell, S. (1997). Influence and autonomy in psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Modell, A. H. (1990). Other times, other realities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
Modell, A. H. (2003). Imagination and the meaningful brain. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Pally, R. (1998). Emotional processing: The mind-body connection. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 79, 349–362.
Pally, R. (2005). A neuroscience perspective on forms of intersubjectivity in infant research and adult attachment. In B. Beebe, S. Knoblach, J. Rustin, & D. Sorter (Eds.), Forms of intersubjectivity in infant and adult treatment. New York: Other Press.
Palombo, S. R. (2007). Complexity theory as the parent science of psychoanalysis. In C. Piers, J. P. Muller, & J. Brent (Eds.), Self-organizing complexity in psychological systems. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson.
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience. New York: Oxford University.
Panksepp, J. (2003). At the interface of the affective, behavioral, and cognitive neurosciences: Decoding the emotional feelings of the brain. Brain and Cognition, 52, 4–14.
Panksepp, J., & Smith-Pasqualini, M. (2005). The search for the fundamental brain/mind sources of affective experience. In J. Nadel & D. Muir (Eds.), Emotional development: Recent research advances. Oxford, UK: Oxford University.
Parsons, M. (1999). The logic of play in psychoanalysis. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 80, 871–884.
Piers, C. (2005). The mind’s multiplicity and continuity. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 15, 229–254.
Pizer, S. A. (1998). Building bridges: The negotiation of paradox in psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Revonsuo, A. (1999). Binding and the phenomenal unity of consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, 8, 173–185.
Rizzolati, G., & Craighero, L. (2004). The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, 169–192.
Rosenblatt, A. (2004). Insight, working through, and practice: The role of procedural knowledge. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 52, 190–207.
Schore, A. N. (2003a). Affect dysregulation and disorders of the self. New York: Norton.
Schore, A. N. (2003b). Affect regulation and the repair of the self. New York: Norton.
Seligman, S. (2005). Dynamic systems theories as a metaframework for psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 15, 285–319.
Slade, A. (1994). Making meaning and making believe: Their role in the clinical process. In A. Slade & D. Palmer Wolf (Eds.), Children at play: Clinical and developmental approaches to meaning and representation (pp. 81–107). New York: Oxford University.
Spiegel, S. (1989). An interpersonal approach to child therapy. New York: Columbia University.
Sutton-Smith, B. (1997). The ambiguity of play. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
Thelen, E. (2005). Dynamic systems theory and the complexity of change. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 15, 255–283.
Tronick, E. (2007). The neurobehavioral and social-emotional development of infants and children. New York: WW Norton.
Tyson, P. (2002). The challenges of psychoanalytic developmental theory. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 50, 19–52.
Van der Heijden, A. H. C., & Van der Velde, F. (1999). Cognition for selection. Visual Cognition, 6, 83–87.
Van der Velde, F., & de Kamps, M. (2006). Neural blackboard architectures of combinatorial structures in cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29, 37–108.
Winnicott, C. (1945). Children who cannot play. In J. Kanter (Ed.), Face to face with children: The life and work of Clare Winnicott. London, UK: H. Karnac Books Ltd. (rev. 2004).
Winnicott, C. (1963). Face to face with children. In J. Kanter (Ed.), Face to face with children: The life and work of Clare Winnicott. London, UK: H. Karnac Books Ltd. (rev. 2004).
Winnicott, D. W. (1958). Through pediatrics to psycho-analysis. New York: Basic Books.
Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Playing and reality. New York: Routledge.
Wolf, N. S., Gales, M. E., Shane, E., & Shane, M. (2001). The developmental trajectory from amodal perception to empathy and communication: The role of mirror neurons in this process. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 21, 94–112.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Levy, A.J. Neurobiology and the Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalytic Play Therapy with Children. Clin Soc Work J 39, 50–60 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-009-0229-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-009-0229-x