ABSTRACT
D. Winnicott’s statement, that the aim of psychoanalytic therapy is to develop a capacity for playing, is famous. His wife quotes Winnicott’s own statement that “Playing is an experience, always a creative experience, and it is an experience in the space–time continuum, a basic form of living”. In this chapter the author wants to put forward the idea that to be fully and creatively alive means living at a point of intersection between time and timelessness. Orpheus cannot resist looking back at Eurydice because he cannot allow timelessness and time to intersect. Hades, king of the underworld, was captivated by Orpheus’s singing and agreed that he should lead Eurydice back into the world of the living, on condition that he did not turn round to see her on the way. The two worlds appear utterly separate, and the desire of Orpheus to recover his wife from the one and get her back into the other emphasizes the disjunction between them.
