Why Play? … Musings during This Pandemic

This special journal issue, “Play for a Change,” entered into production just as the 2020 pandemic gripped the world. Though planned for more than a year prior, we proceeded into production, while simultaneously, sanitizing ourselves and our homes, stocking up on food and other provisions for indeterminate periods of “sheltering” in place. Confronted with an uncertain future, with millions stricken, hundreds of thousands dead, entire families quarantined at home, life as many had known it was brought to an abrupt halt, ours included. The lives of children, adolescents and emerging adults, and their parents have drastically changed, schools have closed and outdoor play has been curtailed, with survival concerns and grieving becoming central to the lives of so many of us. We simply could not bring forth this issue of the journal and ignore the obvious, the context in which we are all living. We reach out to our readers, our authors as well as our editorial board with caring and concern for the well-being of all. Our hope is that this special issue developed during a pre-pandemic time will prove relevant to the many who are continuing to work as analytic therapists, a large number “virtually,” supporting our young patients and their families through teletherapy. As psychoanalysts and psychotherapists of all traditions, we are fully aware that the capacity to play is jeopardized during a traumatic experience, significantly impacted by acute grief, disorganized attachments and/or a backdrop of profound insecurity. We know that a loss of the capacity to play is often a signal suggesting pathological adaptation, poor function, a disruption of this natural primary emotion (Panksepp, 1998). Thus, play can serve as a barometer of development, a reflection of the coping ability and emotional status of children during the worst of times and the study of its content and process may provide insight into unarticulated worries. Facilitating the process of play can be therapeutic, providing relief, as meaning is made and the narrative develops. It seems thus, that this is a particularly important time to consider the role of play in life, in development, and its importance to the process of adaptation, and change, including within psychotherapy. The psychoanalytic literature is filled with articles which explore post-traumatic play in childhood and its use for preventive intervention. A nonexhaustive listing of some particularly relevant articles and special issues published in JICAP are listed at the end of this Foreword. The seeds for this special issue were, as noted earlier, sown some years before the current pandemic. The dream for this issue was brought to me by Laurel Silber, our Guest co-Editor, who envisioned an entire issue presenting contemporary perspectives on play, with a particular emphasis on the role of play as practiced in psychoanalytic/psychodynamic forms of psychotherapy. A long time advocate for the rights of children, Silber some years back, had joined with colleagues, including Marjorie Bosk (this issue), Corinne Masur, Meg Wise (Executive Director of the Smith Memorial Playground in Philadelphia) and together began a process that created the” Philadelphia Declaration of Play” seeking to bring attention to what they deemed as a Public Health Crisis; the disappearance of free play which was declared to be endangering the lives of children. In connection with this effort they joined with other professionals from the Association for Childhood Education International and Alliance for Childhood and attended and presented at the Global Summit on Childhood (in Washington, D.C. 2012), became Ambassadors for their initiative “Decade of Childhood,” committed to improving the lives of children. These advocates spoke at schools, parent groups, and