ABSTRACT
While work and play differ in their relationships to reality, it can nonetheless be said that both in work and in play our purpose is to create and inhabit an imagined world. Yet, it can also be said that both work and play often exist in forms in which the element of imagination has been lost. While we continue to use the term play for these unimaginative forms of play-like activity, we can also refer to them as expressions of impairment in the capacity to play. What we then have is an activity reminiscent of play, in that it denies the reality principle, but also unlike play, in that it is overwhelmed by adaptation to external reality. In relationship to work, various forms of role play fall into this category of play-like activities that have lost the vital element in play.
