Professional paths over six decades researching and practicing play

Reflecting on more than a half century of research and clinical practice, we focus on one feature of the human condition, our ability to engage in mental imaginative representations. Our research deals with pretend play of children, and adult thought focusing on possible worlds, potential social interactions, stream of consciousness, and planful action sequences. We point to ways research on play, imagination, and self-systems, may be incorporated into clinical practice. Two cases representing how research affected treatment in a toilet phobic child, and treatment with an adult manifesting anxiety and depression are discussed. In both cases, we highlight how the use of imagination, in particular, affected the outcomes

Anxiety · Clinical Practice · Consciousness · Developmental psychology · Psychiatry · Psychotherapist · Toilet · Child Therapy and Development · Medicine · Mind wandering and attention · Nursing · Psychology · Social Psychology

• The principles of psychology.

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• The Brain's Default Network

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• Wandering Minds

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• Self-discrepancy

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• Children's games in street and playground

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• Personality and Psychotherapy

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• Introduction

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• Representations of Self and Other

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• Self‐Discrepancies as Predictors of Vulnerability to Distinct Syndromes of Chronic Emotional Distress

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• Self-discrepancy and natural killer cell activity

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• The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren

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