ABSTRACT
The study of pretend play has a long history in psychology. As early as the 1920s, scholarly treatises on child development included the topic of pretend play, although typically without empirical support (Fein, 1981). Following this initial interest, pretend play remained dormant in the psychological literature until roughly 1950, when personality theorists, eager to test elements of psychoanalytic theory as they applied to children (e.g., sibling rivalry, aggression), revived research on pretend play (Fein, 1981). Interest in the emotional and clinical features of play continues today (cf. Slade & Wolf, 1994), including the psychoanalytic hypothesis that play may reveal unconscious motives kept from awareness to protect the child from feelings of anxiety (Scarlett, 1994).
