The Urge to Play (Active Urge)

Abstract

We can understand “play” either as any activity which has no purpose other than itself, or as an activity which follows certain rules but fulfills no practical purpose except that of entertainment, passing the time, or, more exactly, the enjoyment it entails. The second meaning is currently more common, and we had therefore better speak of the active urge as more inclusive, without saying anything about any particular kind of activity. The active urge first appears in physical movement. In it we see the simplest indication of animal vitality. Without considering the play of animals and the theories about the meaning of their games we turn immediately to the playful activity of men. We know it as a specific mark of the life of the child. On the other hand, it fades from the behavior of the adult the more he devotes himself to his life’s work, i.e. subordinates his actions to purpose. But we are concerned here only with the question about the role assumed by the playful attitude generally in creative processes of all kinds. It need hardly be said again that we do not have in mind the distinction between play and seriousness, but rather that between aimless activity, in which nevertheless the whole personality resonates sympathetically and which in any case passes over into intuition, and purposeful activity. The contrast parallels that between the realm of expressiveness and that of measurable facts. Indeed, all playful, aimless activities are to be understood only as expressive gestures and are to be given importance only as such. The examples of such aimless activity referred to in this chapter all have the closest relation to the basic problems of configuration. We shall have the key to all that follows only when it has become clear through the examples how far this aimless, rationally incomprehensible, playful attitude extends into the most complicated artistic creations. For this reason we also treated here the interpretation of undefined forms even though discussing all of them together could be attacked on methodological grounds.