In and Out of the Displacement: The Roles of Interpretation and Play in Work with Children

Play is one form of displacement through which children and their therapists can create meaning and new ways of understanding affects, fantasies, and conflicts. This article explores the technical question of the relation between working in the arena of displacements and interpretations aimed at establishing connections between past and present. A clinical vignette illustrates the use of a variety of displacement modes in the analytic work of a preadolescent boy.