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"Henricks, Thomas S"
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Play and the Human Condition
InPlay and the Human Condition, Thomas Henricks brings together ways of considering play to probe its essential relationship to work, ritual, and communitas. Focusing on five contexts for play--the psyche, the body, the environment, society, and culture--Henricks identifies conditions that instigate play, and comments on its implications for those settings. Offering a general theory of play as behavior promoting self-realization, Henricks articulates a conception of self that includes individual and social identity, particular and transcendent connection, and multiple fields of involvement. Henricks also evaluates play styles from history and contemporary life to analyze the relationship between play and human freedom.Imaginative and stimulating,Play and the Human Conditionshows how play allows us to learn about our qualities and those of the world around us--and in so doing make sense of ourselves.
eBook
Theme and Variation: Arranging Play's Forms, Functions, and \Colors\
The author counters the common descriptions of play as endlessly diverse, ambiguous, and even paradoxical by describing it as a fundamental experience comparable to three others--ritual, work, and communitas. Play, he argues, entails a distinctive strategy of self-realization and a strategy for living. He first examines four basic types of play--exploration, construction, interpretation, and dialogue--and links them respectively to four patterns of self-location: marginality, privilege, subordination, and engagement. He then discusses the character and implications of the four kinds of play and evaluates a profoundly important variation in all play--that between its orderly, cooperative expression and its disorderly, oppositional articulation. Calling the first \"green play\" and the second \"red play,\" the author asserts that both are pertinent to all four kinds of play and that both have important implications for self-realization. Key words: communitas; green play; patterns of self-location; red play; ritual; self-realization; types of play; work and play
Journal Article
Play Studies: A Brief History
In an article adapted from his latest work, Play: A Basic Pathway to the Self, published by The Strong in 2020, the author offers a wide-ranging review of play studies--and the thinkers, philosophers, and scholars who led to the creation of the discipline. He also reviews and seeks to explain for both specialists and more general readers the great diversity of play itself, which he ultimately considers a \"pathway of experience\" that resembles other such pathways as ritual, work, and what he calls communitas. Key words: communitas, play, play scholarship, play studies, play theory, ritual, work
Journal Article
Play as experience
The author investigates what he believes one of the more important aspects of play--the experience it generates in its participants. He considers the quality of this experience in relation to five ways of viewing play--as action, interaction, activity, disposition, and within a context. He treats broadly the different forms of affect, including emotion, then critically reviews several prominent theories of the connection between play and experience. He concludes by emphasizing the need to integrate these approaches for a deeper understanding of how play functions in people's lives. Key words: play as affect; play as action; play as activity; play as disposition; play as experience; play as interaction; play within context
Journal Article
Play as Self-Realization: Toward a General Theory of Play
In a wide-ranging essay that reviews the major theories of plays and relates them to significant notions of the self, the author addresses the question of why we play. He does so to argue that play is a biologically driven project of self-understanding and self-realization, one that humans-although they also share the experience with other creatures-have developed most fully as a part of their psychological and social life. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Journal Article
Reason and Rationalization: A Theory of Modern Play
The author reviews historical attempts-mostly by European thinkers-to characterize modernity and its relationship to play. He discusses ideas from Friederich Schiller to Brian Sutton-Smith, all to set the ground for a theory of play in the modern world. Emphasizing the ideas of Max Weber-in particular his theory of rationalization and its importance for expressive culture-the author explores the value of rationality to a theory of play. He defines play more broadly than as a pastime and learning aid for children or a rough-and-tumble developmental tool in the evolution of mammals. Instead, he bases it more squarely on his concept of \"emotional destinations.\" In the process, he looks at kinds of play not often considered in play studies, such as professional sports and official festivals, and finds play not just a ubiquitous biological phenomena but also an essential social activity.
Journal Article
A theory of modern play
The author reviews historical attempts--mostly by European thinkers--to characterize modernity and its relationship to play He discusses ideas from Friederich Schiller to Brian Sutton-Smith, all to set the ground for a theory of play in the modern world. Emphasizing the ideas of Max Weber--in particular his theory of rationalization and its importance for expressive culture--the author explores the value of rationality to a theory of play He defines play more broadly than as a pastime and learning aid for children or a rough-and-tumble developmental tool in the evolution of mammals. Instead, he bases it more squarely on his concept of \"emotional destinations.\" In the process, he looks at kinds of play not often considered in play studies, such as professional sports and official festivals, and finds play not just a ubiquitous biological phenomena but also an essential social activity. Keywords: emotional destinations; Max Weber; modernity; play and the modern world; rationalization
Journal Article
Play Studies
First published in 1958, Caillois's Man, Play, and Games sets forth its own definition of play and reenvisions the split between modern and premodern versions of that activity. First comes the dominant approach in the field, what he calls the rhetoric of \"progress.\" [...]he notes the rhetoric of \"fate,\" the idea that play is connected intimately with chance, destiny, and other matters defying human control. [...]I maintain there is need for a brief history of the field that summarizes key themes and recalls important writings. Because of its wide scope and necessary brevity, this article may give less than adequate attention to some themes-and some scholars-that some readers deem
Journal Article
Play Studies: A Brief History
In an article adapted from his latest work, \"Play: A Basic Pathway to the Self,\"published by The Strong in 2020, the author offers a wide-ranging review of play studies--and the thinkers, philosophers, and scholars who led to the creation of the discipline. He also reviews and seeks to explain for both specialists and more general readers the great diversity of play itself, which he ultimately considers a \"pathway of experience\" that resembles other such pathways as ritual, work, and what he calls \"communitas\"
Journal Article