Vulnerable Populations Portfolio
Health Starts
Where We Play
An essay by Dr. Stuart Brown
I
have just ended a long road trip to a cousin’s distant Utah
ranch with my dog, Jake, and we are beat. But as I shut down the
engine alongside the pasture where a greeting menagerie of animals
and relatives are congregated and open the car door, something
magical happens. Jake is out of the car, a blond Labrador blur. He is
in a full “state” of doggie play, blasting into the maze of animals and
people without hesitation.
I worry about how the horses will react,
but they don’t shy. In a flicker the horses
are jumping and gamboling. It seems that
we all — adults, kids, dogs, horses — recognize that Jake is consumed with
the joy of play. All of us are caught up
in this short-lived moment. All of us
feel completely exuberant. We catch our
breaths and laugh. The tension and fatigue
of the drive has fallen from my shoulders.
The kids are giggling. The rest of the day
has a lightness and ease that I hadn’t felt
for a long time.
On that day, Jake gave a compact
demonstration what years of academic
and clinical research have taught me about
the power of play. Most obviously, it is
intensely pleasurable. It energizes us and
enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews
a natural sense of optimism and opens
us up to new possibilities. Those are all
wonderful, admirable, valuable qualities.
But that is just the beginning of the story.
In recent years neuroscientists,
developmental biologists, psychologists,
social scientists and researchers from every
point of the scientific compass are coming
to an understanding that play is a profound
biological process. It has evolved over eons
in many animal species. It shapes our brain
and makes us smarter and more adaptable.
It fosters empathy and makes it possible
Stuart L. Brown, M.D., is director of the National Institute for Play and author of PLAY: How
It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. Trained in general and
internal medicine, psychiatry and clinical research, Dr. Brown recognized that playtime is essential
to human development when he systematically discovered its absence in the life stories of
murderers and felony drunken drivers. His broad-based evaluations of highly creative individuals
revealed the centrality of playfulness to their success and well-being.
A life without play is pretty
grim — no sports, no books,
no movies or art, no humor
or irony.
for us to live in complex social groups. It
lies at the core of creativity and innovation.
It prompts us to be continually, joyously,
physically active, combating obesity and
enhancing overall health and well-being.
It can interrupt the damage done by
chronic stress, and even gives the immune
system a bounce.
And of all animal species, humans are the
biggest players of all. In short, we are built
through play, and we are built to play.
When we play, at any age, we are engaged
in the purest expression of our humanity,
the truest expression of our individuality.
Is it any wonder that often the times we
feel most alive, those that make up our best
memories, are moments of play?
Play is a basic need. It is a biological
requirement for normal growth and
development. The scientists associated with
the National Institute for Play are united in
their concern about “play undernutrition,”
noting that the corrosive effects of this
form of starvation gradually erode emotional,
cognitive and physiologic well-being. So a
major aspect of sedentarism, obesity, and
poor stress management can be readily
linked to play starvation.
If these claims seem over the top, let’s
look at just one kind of basic play, rough
and tumble play. It is characterized in
preschool kids by chasing, squealing,
punching, diving into cardboard boxes,
fantasy games, role-playing and more.
It is spontaneous is kid-driven, and fun.
The participants stay friends despite what
looks to adults like chaos. As kids grow
up, it changes forms, but still remains
defined as a separate category of behavior.
It evolves into competition, rule-setting,
verbal jousting and a myriad of forms, all
of which are underlain by a “state” of play.
It produces the uplifting symphony of
sounds heard from most fun playgrounds
worldwide, and the prime outgrowths it
offers are the promotion of friendships,
the establishment of empathy, and
the capacity to handle exclusions and
humiliations. When unimpeded by adult
oversupervision, (or allowed to deteriorate
into chaos when undersupervised), it
produces active trust and a sense of
belonging; it fosters negotiation, workable
rules and limit setting, and sets in motion
many of the foundations that allow later
adult communities to flourish.
The consequences of missing this sort of
playful experience are destructive. Rats
deprived of the opportunity to engage in
rough and tumble play grow up socially
inept, inflexible, can’t tell friend from foe.
They are emotionally fragile. Though they
can forage and survive physically, they
do not reproduce, nor can they handle
unexpected stresses that playful rats handle
with ease. Play crafts their “social brain.”
My own research supports this observation
in humans. My studies of violent antisocial
young men revealed that their rough and
tumble play patterns in childhood were
very different and deficient as compared to
a group of matched normal populations.
They were emotionally fragile, rigid in
their interpersonal relationships, and
unable to handle aggressive impulses when
confronted with stressful situations, very
much like the rats.
If play is so important, what happens to
it? Nearly every one of us starts our lives
playing quite naturally. As children,
we don’t need instruction in how to play.
We just find what we enjoy and do it.
Whatever “rules” there are to play, we
can learn from supportive adults and
our playmates.
From our play we learn how the world
works, and how friends interact. And
about the mystery and excitement that
the world can hold in a tree house or an
old tire swing. At some point, though, its
naturalness can often be suppressed. Adults
forget what it was like to be little and feel
they must organize their kids, cut down on
unstructured time, get kindergarten kids
ready to read early so they can succeed in
life, even though the data we now have
shows that this early preschool pressure and
later diminished recess time result in fewer
accomplishments in the long term. But
nonetheless, we are told that unstructured
play and games are unproductive, a waste
of time, even sinful.
If there is any doubt about the essential
nature of play in humans, consider what
life would be like without it. A life without
play is pretty grim — no sports, no books,
no movies or art, no humor or irony.
Without play, people become rigid in their
thinking, stereotypical in their behavior
and emotionally depressed. Ebenezer
Scrooge is a good example of such a person.
The truth is that play is what makes life
lively. It is essential to long-term intimacy.
It fosters empathy and understanding
of others.
If we are to thrive as individuals and
as a culture, we need to recognize the
fundamental role of play in our lives.
We have to foster a culture in which
play is not seen as an empty activity or a
waste of time. Like sleep, it is a biological
need that has been sculpted by evolution
over millions of years, and an activity
essential to our health and well-being.
To be whole, happy and successful
individuals, we must remember what Jake
knows naturally. If we can do that, we will
find ourselves leaping forward into the day,
exuberantly pursuing everything that life
has to offer.
We need to recognize the fundamental
role of play in our lives... Like sleep,
it is a biological need that has been
sculpted by evolution over millions of
years, and an activity essential to our
health and well-being.
©2010 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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