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Children playing at the Hampstead Nurseries, London, 1940
Exhibition
Play and Psychoanalysis at the Freud Museum London
19 Jul 2017 – 10 Sep 2017
Regular hours
- Wednesday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Thursday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Friday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Saturday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Sunday
- 12:00 – 17:00
Address
- 20 Maresfield Gardens
- Hampstead
- London
England - NW3 5SX
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Finchley Road
- Nearest tube: Finchley Road, 5 min walk from Museum
- Finchley Road & Frognal , 5 min walk from Museum
We all play. We all need play. But how do we define play? Play is at the core of development, of creativity, of mental health. It is a source of fun, a way of dealing with anxieties, of creating something new, of building relationships. It helps to define who we are and what we can do.
About
‘It is only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.’ - Donald W. Winnicott
Exploring play and its many meanings in psychoanalysis, this exhibition will look at play in the work of Sigmund and Anna Freud, Melanie Klein and Donald W. Winnicott, and how approaches to play, within and outside of the clinic, have developed since Sigmund Freud’s lifetime. Was play controversial and why? How was it used in clinical sessions? Why do we all need to play?
The exhibition will include works made by children in workshops at children’s charity UP: Unlocking Potential, a centre for vulnerable children. They used soft materials to make models of teddies and superheroes, hands and animals. Artworks by adult artists that explore or subvert notions of play will sit next to the children’s works.
Games and Interviews with key figures in the field (as well as people who just like to play) will be available on audio visual devices that will punctuate the exhibition. PLAY aims to be informative and interactive, seeking to entice people of all ages to play at the Freud Museum, with an open invitation: Come and play!
Exhibition kindly supported by Arts Council England and Kings College London
