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[[Freud]]'s Story of the [[Child]]'s [[Game ]] of <i>'Fort'-'Da'</i></font><br><br>
</b> <font size="+2"> At this point I propose to leave the dark and dismal [[subject]]<br>of the [[traumatic ]] [[neurosis ]] and [[pass ]] on to examine the method<br>of [[working ]] employed by the [[mental ]] [[apparatus ]] in one of its<br>earliest normal activities‹I mean in [[children]]'s play.<br><br>
The different theories of children's play have only recently<br>
been summarized and discussed from the [[psychoanalytic ]] point<br>
of view by Pfeifer (1919), to whose paper I would refer my<br>
readers. These theories attempt to discover the motives which<br>
lead children to play, but they fail to bring into the foreground<br>
the [[economic ]] motive, the consideration of the yield of [[pleasure]]<br>involved. Without wishing to include the [[whole ]] field covered<br>by these phenomena, I have been able, through a [[chance ]] opportunity which presented itself, to throw some light upon the<br>
first game played by a little boy of one and a half and invented<br>
by himself. It was more than a mere fleeting observation, for I<br>
lived under the same roof as the child and his [[parents ]] for some<br>weeks, and it was some [[time ]] before I discovered the [[meaning]]<br>of the puzzling [[activity ]] which he constantly repeated.<br><br>
The child was not at all precocious in his intellectual de<br>
velopment. At the age of one and a half he could say only a few<br>
comprehensible [[words]]; he could also make use of a [[number ]] of<br>
sounds which expressed a meaning intelligible to those around<br>
him. He was, however, on [[good ]] [[terms ]] with his parents and their<br>one servant-[[girl]], and tributes were paid to his [[being ]] a 'good<br>
boy'. He did not disturb his parents at night, he conscientiously<br>
obeyed [[orders ]] not to touch certain things or go into certain<br>rooms, and above all he never cried when his [[mother ]] [[left ]] him<br>
for a few hours. At the same time, he was greatly attached to<br>
his mother, who had not only fed him herself but had also<br>
looked after him without any [[outside ]] [[help]]. This good little boy,<br>
however, had an occasional disturbing habit of taking any small<br>
[[objects ]] he could get hold of and throwing [[them ]] away from him<br>
into a corner, under the bed, and so on, so that hunting for his<br>
toys and picking them up was often quite a business. As he did<br>
this he gave vent to a loud, long-drawn-out 'o-o-o-o', accompanied by an expression of interest and [[satisfaction]]. His mother<br>and the writer of the [[present ]] account were agreed in [[thinking]]<br>that this was not a mere interjection but represented the [[German ]] [[word ]] 'fort' ['gone']. I eventually realized that it was a<br>
game and that the only use he made of any of his toys was to<br>
play 'gone' with them. One day I made an observation which<br>
confirmed my view. The child had a wooden reel with a piece<br>
of string tied round it. It never occurred to him to pull it along<br>
the floor behind him, for [[instance]], and play at its being a carriage. What he did was to hold the reel by the string and very<br>
skilfully throw it over the edge of his curtained cot, so that it<br>
disappeared into it, at the same time uttering his expressive<br>
'o-o-o-o'. He then pulled the reel out of the cot again by the<br>
string and hailed its reappearance with a joyful 'da' ['there'].<br>
This, then, was the [[complete ]] game‹disappearance and [[return]].<br>
As a rule one only witnessed its first act, which was repeated<br>
untiringly as a game in itself, though there is no [[doubt ]] that the<br>
greater pleasure was attached to the second act.<sup>l</sup><br><br>
The interpretation of the game then became obvious. It<br>
was related to the child's great [[cultural ]] achievement‹the [[instinctual ]] [[renunciation ]] (that is, the renunciation of instinctual<br>
satisfaction) which he had made in allowing his mother to go<br>
away without protesting He compensated himself for this, as it<br>
were, by himself staging the [[disappearance ]] and return of the<br>
objects within his reach. It is of course a matter of indifference<br>
from the point of view of judging the effective [[nature ]] of the<br>
game whether the child invented it himself or took it over on<br>
ome outside [[suggestion]]. Our interest is directed to [[another]]<br>
point. The child cannot possibly have felt his mother's departure as something agreeable or even indifferent. How then does<br>
his [[repetition ]] of this distressing [[experience ]] as a game fit in with<br>the pleasure [[principle]]? It may perhaps be said in reply that her<br>departure had to be enacted as a necessary preliminary to her joyful return, and that it was in the latter that lay the [[true ]] [[purpose]]<br><br>
<font size="-1"><sup>1</sup> A further observation subsequently confirmed th [[interpretation]]<br>
fully. One day the child's mother had been away for several hours and<br>
on her return was met with the words '[[Baby ]] o-o~o!' which was at first<br>
incomprehensible. It soon turned out, however, that during this long<br>
period of solitude the child had found a method of making himself<br>
appear. He had discovered his [[reflection ]] in a [[full]]- length [[mirror ]] which<br>
did not quite reach to the ground, so that by crouching down he could<br>
make his mirror-[[image ]] 'gone'. [A further reference to this gtory will be<br>
found in <i>The Interpretatron of [[Dreams]],</i> Standard Ed, 5, 461n.]</font><br><br>
of the game. But against this must be counted the observed<br>
No certain decision can be reached from the analysis of a<br>
single [[case ]] like this. On an unprejudiced view one gets an impression that the child turned his experience into a game from<br>another motive. At the outset he was in a [[passive ]] situation‹he<br>was overpowered by the experience; but, by [[repeating ]] it,<br>unpleasurable though it was, as a game, he took on an [[active]]<br>part. These efforts might be put down to an [[instinct ]] for [[mastery]]<br>that was acting independently of whether the [[memory ]] was<br>
in itself pleasurable or not. But still another interpretation may<br>
be attempted. Throwing away the [[object ]] so that it was 'gone'<br>might [[satisfy ]] an impulse of the child's, which was suppressed in<br>
his actual [[life]], to revenge himself on his mother for going away<br>
from him. In that case it would have a defiant meaning: 'All<br>
[[right]], then, go away! I don't [[need ]] you. I'm sending you away<br>
myself.' A year later, the same boy whom I had observed at his<br>
first game used to take a toy, if he was angry with it, and throw<br>
it on the floor, exclaiming: 'Go to the fwont!' He had heard at<br>
that time that his [[absent ]] [[father ]] was 'at the front', and was far<br>from regretting his [[absence]]; on the contrary he made it quite<br>clear that he had no [[desire ]] to be disturbed in his sole possession<br>
of his mother.l We [[know ]] of [[other ]] children who liked to express<br>
similar hostile impulses by throwing away objects instead of<br>
persons.' We are therefore left in doubt as to whether the<br>
impulse to [[work ]] over in the [[mind ]] some overpowering experience so as to make oneself [[master ]] of it can find expression as a<br>primary [[event]], and independently of the [[pleasure principle]].<br>
For, in the case we have been discussing, the child may, after<br>
all, only have been able to [[repeat ]] his unpleasant experience in<br>
play because the repetition carried along with it a yield of<br>
pleasure of another sort but none the less a direct one.<br><br>
Nor shall we be helped in our hesitation between these two<br>
views by further considering [[children's play]]. It is clear that in</font><p><font size="+2"><br>
<br>
<font size="-1"><sup>1</sup> When this child was five and [[three]]-quarters, his mother died. Now<br>that she was really 'gone' ('o-o-o'), the little boy showed no [[signs ]] of<br>grief. It is true that in the interval a second child had been [[born ]] and had<br>roused him to violent [[jealousy]].</font><br><br>
their play children repeat everything that has made a great<br>
impression on them in [[real ]] life, and that in doing so they<br>
abreact the strength of the impression and, as one might put<br>
it, make themselves master of the situaffon. But on the other<br>
hand it is obvious that all their play is influenced by a [[wish]]<br>
hat dominates them the whole time‹the wish to be grown-up<br>
and to be able to do what grown-up [[people ]] do. It can also be<br>
observed that the unpleasurable nature of an experience does<br>
of the next game; but we must not in that connection overlook<br>
the fact that there is a yield of pleasure from another source.<br>
As the child passes over from the [[passivity ]] of the experience to<br>
the activity of the game, he hands on the disagreeable experience to one of his playmates and in this way revenges himself<br>
on a [[substitute]].<br><br>
Nevertheless, it emerges from this discussion that there is no<br>
need to assume the [[existence ]] of a special imitative instinct in<br>[[order ]] to provide a motive for play. Finally, a reminder may be<br>
added that the artistic play and artistic imitation carried out<br>
by [[adults]], which, unlike children's, are aimed at an audience,<br>do not spare the spectators (for instance, in [[tragedy]]) the most<br>
painful experiences and can yet be felt by them as highly enjoyable. This is convincing proof that, even under the dominance<br>
of the pleasure principle, there are ways and means enough of<br>
recollected and worked over in the mind. The consideration of<br>
these cases and situations, which have a yield of pleasure as<br>
their final outcome, should be undertaken by some [[system ]] of<br>[[aesthetics ]] with an economic approach to its subiect-matter<br>
They are of no use for our purposes, since they presuppose the<br>
existence and dominance of the pleasure principle; they give<br>
no evidence of the operation of tendencies beyond the pleasure<br>
principle, that is, of tendencies more [[primitive ]] than it and independent of it.</font> <br>
<br>
[pp. 14-17 from <i>Beyond The Pleasure Principle</i>, Volume
18, [[Standard Edition]].]
