Magical arts: the poetics of play.

In British Object Relations psychoanalysis, play and magic are closely linked, revealing that aesthetic concerns have always been central to the field. Magical thinking appears from the start in Melanie Klein's play technique and early aesthetic writings, as well as in Susan Isaacs' educational experiments and theories of metaphor. Marion Milner's clinical work connects primitive rituals from Frazer's "The Golden Bough" with a patient's creativity through war-games. In Donald Winnicott's concept of the transitional object, play becomes a theory of culture and private madness, serving as a paradigm for psychoanalysis itself. Tracing these non-positivistic, mystical, and poetical elements shows that aesthetics is not just entangled with psychoanalysis but constitutive of it in its mid-twentieth century forms.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The paper argues that links between play and magic in British Object Relations point to the persistence of aesthetic concerns within psychoanalysis. Magical thinking is present in British Object Relations psychoanalysis from its beginnings in Klein's play technique and early aesthetic writings, surfacing elsewhere in Susan Isaac's educational experiments and her theories of metaphor. Marion Milner's clinical account of the overlapping areas of illusion and symbol-formation in a boy's war-games link the primitive rituals of Frazer's "The Golden Bough" with her patient's creativity. In Winnicott's concept of the transitional object, the theory of play achieves its apotheosis as a diffusive theory of culture or "private madness," and as a paradigm for psychoanalysis itself. Tracing the non-positivistic, mystical, and poetical elements in British Object Relations underlines the extent to which aesthetics is not just entangled with psychoanalysis, but constitutive of it in its mid-twentieth century manifestations.