ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes the existence of two alternative developmental lines, one leading from childhood play toward creative work and sublimation, and one eventuating in acting-out behaviour. Play, that ubiquitous and unique form of childhood behaviour, has been studied extensively by representatives of a variety of disciplines, including psychoanalysis and psychology. Examination of the structural or organisational properties of play requires, to begin with, a description of the basic components of play. Although the differences deserve further study, the similarities of the deaf to the hearing in that their capacity for logical thought and for symbolisation is intact, is an important finding. One of the difficulties of such a systematic study is the matter of finding a method of categorising and recording the phenomena under consideration. Children in the second half of the second year of life are occupied with just these matters of separation of self from object, and with developing body schematization.
