of play as a function are generally taken for granted and form the
starting-point of all such scientific researches. The numerous
attempts to define the biological function of play show a striking
variation. By some the origin and fundamentals of play have been
described as a discharge of superabundant vital energy, by others
as the satisfaction of some "imitative instinct", or again as simply
a "need" for relaxation. According to one theory play constitutes
a training of the young creature for the serious work that life will
demand later on. According to another it serves as an exercise in
restraint needful to the individual. Some find the principle of
play in an innate urge to exercise a certain faculty, or in the desire
to dominate or compete. Yet others regard it as an"abreaction" --
an outlet for harmful impulses, as the necessary restorer of energy
wasted by one-sided activity, as "wish-fulfilment", as a fiction
designed to keep up the feeling of personal value, etc. ¹

All these hypotheses have one thing in common: they all start
from the assumption that play must serve something which is not
play, that it must have some kind of biological purpose. They all
enquire into the why and the wherefore of play. The various
answers they give tend rather to overlap than to exclude one
another. It would be perfectly possible to accept nearly all the
explanations without getting into any real confusion of thought --
and without coming much nearer to a real understanding of the
play-concept. They are all only partial solutions of the problem.
If any of them were really decisive it ought either to exclude all
the others or comprehend them in a higher unity. Most of them
only deal incidentally with the question of what play is in itself
and what it means for the player. They attack play direct with
the quantitative methods of experimental science without first
paying attention to its profoundly aesthetic quality. As a rule they
leave the primary quality of play as such, virtually untouched.
TO each and every one of the above "explanations" it might well
be objected: "So far so good, but what actually is the fun of play-
ing? Why does the baby crow with pleasure? Why does the
gambler lose himself in his passion? Why is a huge crowd roused
to frenzy by a football match?" This intensity of, and absorption
in, play finds no explanation in biological analysis. Yet in this
intensity, this absorption, this power of maddening, lies the very

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