"Jugar el juego propuesto": acerca del analista y las propuestas lúdicas del niño.

This paper purports to contribute to the study of the link between play and words, and the latter's place in analystic technique. The case of a child 6 1/2 old, who came to treatment aged just 5 years, illustrates my analytic stance, particularly my way of responding to the child's proposals, and the ensuing effects. Responding to the child's play requests is unavoidable in child analyses: under bearable levels of anxiety it may lead to a widening of the play itself as well as to a chance to think about it. Which leads to the issue of whether to interpret within the game itself from the allotted role, or alternatively from out of it, building different places for play on the one hand, and thinking-talking about it on the other hand. Specifically, it is argued that in child analyses enacting the child's play proposal has a fundamental place in anaytic work. 'Playing the game proposed' favours the unfolding which is a must for the emergence, finding and construction of meaning. Interpretation enounced from 'inside' the allotted personified role, often quasi-theatrically, helps further introjection by the analysand and also, besides its instrumental function, it builds up a meaningful place. This is why it is important to keep up the play context, the interruption of which alters its receptive and transformational function. It may happen, though, in instances where manic defenses are at forefront, that the limits of play and acting become blurred and the assumption of the allotted roles may help sustain a manic fusion of ego and ego-ideal, as well as a level of denial, confusion, and rejection of dependency. In such cases, acceptance of the allotted role may help promote manic triumphalism, while tolerance may lead the analyst into masoquism, perverting the transference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]