ABSTRACT
If the characteristic activity of the young child is play, the characteristic activity of the adult is work. We distinguish between work and play according to their differing relationships with reality. In play, we suspend what Freud refers to as the reality principle, while in work we acknowledge that principle. We might assume that the different relationships of work and play to reality suggest that they are driven by different motivations. I think, however, that we can learn something important about work and play by assuming instead that the goal is the same in both cases. If we make this assumption, then we might also assume that the necessity for work arises due to the limits of the imagination as a vehicle for achieving that goal, since by suspending the reality principle in play we subsume our activity into the sphere of imaginative construction or fantasy. Why might our imagination fail us?
