Jason Aronson, Inc.
Pages: 252
Trim: 6½ x 9½
978-0-7657-0760-4 • Hardback • January 2011 • $120.00 • (£92.00)
978-1-4422-3510-6 • Paperback • April 2014 • $62.00 • (£48.00)
978-0-7657-0762-8 • eBook • January 2011 • $58.50 • (£45.00)
Monisha C. Akhtar, PhD, is a faculty member at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, PA. She maintains a private practice in Ardmore, PA.
Part 1 Part I—Development
Chapter 2 Chapter 1—Self-Other Action Play: A Window into the Representational World of the Infant
Chapter 3 Chapter 2—Fathers and Play
Chapter 4 Chapter 3—Adolescence as a Time to Play
Part 5 Part II—Psychopathology
Chapter 6 Chapter 4—Neurotic Inhibitions of Play
Chapter 7 Chapter 5—Normal and Pathological Playfulness
Chapter 8 Chapter 6—Remembering, Replaying, and Working Through: The Transformation of Trauma in Children's Play
Part 9 Part III—Sociocultural Aspects
Chapter 10 Chapter 7—Cultural Pathways to Understanding Children's Play: Mythology and Folklore
Chapter 11 Chapter 8—Playing for Survival during the Holocaust
Chapter 12 Chapter 9—Play and Creativity
Chapter 13 Chapter 10—Play and Track II Diplomacy
Part 14 Part IV—Technical Implications
Chapter 15 Chapter 11—Aggression in Children: Origins, Manifestations, and Management through Play
Chapter 16 Chapter 12—Play and Very Young Children in Object Relations Family Therapy
Chapter 17 Chapter 13—Playfulness in the Adult Analytic Relationship
Chapter 18 References
Freud defined good mental health as 'the ability to love, to work, and to play.' We have devoted much time to studying our ability to love and to work. Our 'ability to play' has gotten short-changed and needs our attention. This clinically relevant and highly enlightening book takes us from child's play to adult play, from the development-stimulating power of play to its use in problem-solving adaptation, even to its outwitting and out-battling trauma, and to its application to loosening the rigidities of adversarial diplomacy. This richly informing, superb book takes us on a journey from childhood to-as long as we live. We must know this for clinical work!
— Henri Parens, MD, Thomas Jefferson University and Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia
Monisha Akhtar's book brings together an impressive array of experts to demonstrate that taking play seriously deepens our clinical knowledge, enriches technique, and reclaims the psychoanalytic understanding that play is central to all human endeavors.
— Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, Kerry Kelly Novick and Jack Novick, PhD, Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute