Recent Biology 385 



Even the imitative function is said to produce the joy of ' victory 

 over obstacles.' Yet, here again, the author is compelled to 

 draw the distinction between the play which is psychological 

 enough to have a represented object, and the instinctive sort in 

 which the pleasure is only that of the instinct's own performance. 

 The pleasure of overcoming friction of movement, also, is very 

 doubtful, since in any but the instinctive games which are cited 

 (Chap. I.) to prove that the animal is not using up surplus 

 energy (seeing that he plays after he is tired) — in other games 

 we stop playing when the friction and inertia of the muscles be- 

 come conscious as fatigue. Much more, however, is to be said 

 for the pleasure of rivalry, or of overcoming an opponent, in the 

 higher types of play; but Herr Groos scarcely does this justice. 



Returning to the element of illusion in play, we find two in- 

 gredients in it (pp. 313 If.) — a division of consciousness (^Spaltuug 

 des Bewusstseins)^ i.e., a division between the activity treated as 

 real and the sense that it is unreal. There is considerable oscilla- 

 tion between these two poles. This ability to treat representa- 

 tions as realities is, according to Herr Groos, the essential of all 

 imagination. In play it is akin to the division of consciousness 

 found in certain pathological cases of double personality. It is 

 a sort of hypnotization by the stream of representations, but with 

 the sense that it is all an illusion and may be pierced through by 

 a return to reality at any moment. This seems to me a true and 

 valuable characterization of the play consciousness (it is taken 

 from K. Lange), but Professor Groos' extension of it to all im- 

 agination does not seem to hold. In his criticisms of others (as 

 the present writer) he fails to honour the current distinction be- 

 tween ' fancy ' and ' constructive imagination.' In fancy we do 

 yield ourselves up to a play of images, but in the imagination of 

 scientific thinking or of artistic creation are not both the goal 

 and the process strenuous enough ? This, indeed, leads Pro- 

 fessor Groos to a view of art which allies it closely with the play 

 function, but to that I return below. 



The second element in the play or ' Schein ' consciousness is 

 the feeling of freedom {Freiheitsgefu/il ; pp. 331 f.). In play there 

 is a sense of * don't-have-to,' so to speak, which is contrasted 



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