ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some more general aspects of play and withdrawal. Once the withdrawn child discovers play, life can start in deadly earnest. That is the way with children’s play and it follows the depths to which play is embeded in our waking and sleeping experience. The withdrawn child may have a dearth, a blockage, or an excess of ideas. He or she may ‘adhere’ to an object, apparently fearful of exploring anything else. Or there may be such a rush of ideas that there’s no time to settle on any one thing long enough to develop a game. Some withdrawn children enjoy the anonymity which often goes with regulated play. They can hide themselves in the pack and pass unnoticed unless they drop the ball or muff the goal. Improvisation on the other hand appeals to those who need a degree of privacy to find themselves.
