Abstract
The essay draws on the psychodynamic theory of D.W. Winnicott to argue for eight interrelated reasons informing the playing of men. Through playing, men seek to reestablish a holding environment; (re) discover their bodies; dabble with non-pathological insanity or madness; support their true self; experience transformation and enter transitional spaces; toy with destruction; seek healing from physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual wounds; they play to experience ego orgasms; and, men play for play’s own sake. The author’s own playing, in the form of long-distance motorcycling provides a backdrop of lived experience for the essay. The article mirrors Winnicott’s methodology, which resisted grand theory making as it focuses on specific psychodynamic insights and themes. Winnicott’s thought is used to extend William Blake’s wisdom around toys and reasons, wisdom Erik Erikson explored previously.
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Notes
I wrote about this experience in: Hamman (2011). A play-full life: Slowing down and seeking peace. Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, p. 1.
Winnicott’s “ego orgasm” is similar to Jacques Lacan’s “jouissance” and it may be that Winnicott got his construct from Lacan, who wrote about jouissance as early as 1953. See: Lacan and Miller (2008). The ethics of psychoanalysis, 1959-1960: The seminar of Jacques Lacan Book VII. London: W.W Norton, p. 191.
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Hamman, J.J. Toys: a Man Has His Reasons. Winnicottian Perspectives on the Playing of Men. Pastoral Psychol 70, 87–106 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-021-00937-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-021-00937-6