ABSTRACT
The playing approach to listening and interpreting lowers the therapist from his or her pedestal. Meaning-making becomes a shared activity, with overt interpretation lying as much with the patient as with the analyst, within the shared or overlapping space for playing. In transitional moments, playing as freedom of association thus involves being both together and separate within the appointed space–time, where what occurs evolves organically in a network of spoken and unspoken communication. The view links meaning-making with playing and free association, in possible contrast with games, where both therapist and patient have their own agenda, heading towards closure. Strawson, however, describes a model of Free Association that defies such structure and order: For most people, inner thought is broken and hiccupy. There are gaps and fadings and fugues. It seizes up, it flies off, it suddenly flashes with extraneous matter.
