ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a question: what might the link be between the two apparently opposing and complementary forces of power and play? Power conjures up abusive adults while play invokes thoughts of innocent and playful children. In a good enough environment, aggression, the power to destroy, defend and oppress, gets integrated into the self and can be sublimated into work, creation, culture and play. The power relations are dynamic and never static in a non-totalitarian system. Part of the dynamic of power relations is the propensity of the powerful to use minority groups to define the boundary between insiders and outsiders. Politicians, as guardians of social integration, unconsciously delegate their concerns about death, insanity and lack of control to certain institutions and professional groups. Psychiatry, Social Work, Residential Care and Psychotherapy can be seen in this way. Play therapy has become a way for children to work things through.
