ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author suggests that some of the conscious emotional feelings described by Donald Winnicott as characteristic of play can be utilized as indicators of the good functioning of the analytic process and in particular of the good functioning of the intersubjective contact barrier in the space of the analytic third. He points out how the setting can also be bent or folded or, can be expanded, thanks to the removal of obstructive aspects, within relational play that has been expanded to encompass the child's parents. Winnicott highlights that play has its roots in a bodily experience accompanied by a feeling of contentment and pleasure tied to the subsiding of hunger. In fact, play is perceived as such when each of the participants feels enriched and nourished by the other. Trust not only initiates play, as Winnicott indicates, but also grows in a way that is directly proportionate to the couple's capacity to remain engaged in play.
