Neurobiology and the Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalytic Play Therapy with Children

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.