178 Steps to an Ecology of Mind All we need to be sure of is that, at any moment, achieve ‘ment may be just around the comer, and, true or fals me tin never be tested. We have got to be lke those for seit and selenite who! work wlth this eget sort of Zpleation, the urgency thet comes fiom feeling de gran discovery. the answer to all our problems, or great ereston, the perfect sonnet, is always only just beyond our feach, of like the mother of a child who fecls that, provided she pay content cough ateton, thee 3 eel hae hte ei may be that infately rare phenomenon, a great and hsppy say be 78 A Theory of Play and Fantasy* This research was planoed and started with an hypothesis to guide our investigations, the task of the investigators being, to collect reievant observational data and, ia the process, £0 pothesis. stil here be described as it bas grown ic our Easlier fundamental work of Whitchesd, Russo? Witte 12 Camap? Wharf ete, as well ss my Own at- 3 carlice thiaking as an epistemological baso for Fsychiavic theory, lad {2 a series of geaeralizatioas: (1) That human verbal eommuriealioa ean operate 20d aibsays dacs eprrite st maay coatastiog levels of abstrace cipla Mate University Technoiosy wf, Nuevch and G, Bateson, Communication: The So isl Mure ef Psychiatry, New York, Norton, 1951.178 Steps to an Ecology of Mind tion, These range ia two directions from the seemingly s ple denotative level (“The eat fs on the mat"). One for set of these more abstract levels includes thote explicit st , implicit messages where the subject of discourse {5 the lane guage. We will call these metalinguistie (for example, "The erbal sound ‘cat’ stands for any member of such and such class of objects.” o “The word, ‘eat’ has no fur and cannot seratch"). The other set of levels of abitruction we will ext metacommunicative (et, “My telling you sshere to find the cat was friendly,” or “This is play”). In these, the subject of discourse it the relationship between the speakers. Te will be noted thatthe vast majority of both metalinguis. tic and metacommunicative messages remain implicit; “and also that, especially in the psyehiatse interview, there occurs 2 forthe cts of inptietnesages about how metacomionsl cative messages of Iriendship and hostility are to be inter. preted. 2) If we speculate about the evolution of communication, it is evident that a very important stage in this evolution gecurs when the organism gradually ceases to respond quite Stutomatcaly to the mondsigns of anther and becemes {abe to recognize the sign as a signal: tht is, to ceonsuize {that the other individual's and its own signals are onl sign which can be trusted, distrusted, (abifed, denied fed, corrected, and 30 forth. Clearly this realization that sf als are signal 1 species, swspaper headlines as indications of events as complexly motivated as ourselves. mammal is automatically excited by the sew , and rightly 50, ual odor of ana of that sign is an” perceptible event which we have species complex state of alfais begins to be the rule, Denton mask the involustary eoxmetie ind whic are an signals. ce cognizable xs such, Many Tuas been thrown all balance by a whilf of perfume, and if we are to believe the ade | 179 vertisers, it seems that theso signals, voluntarily worn, have sometimes an automatic and autosuggestive elfcct even upon the voluntary wearer. «Be that as it may, this brief digression will serve to ilus- ‘wate a stage of evolution—the drama precipitated whoa ‘organisms, having eaten of the frut of the Tree of Knowledge, discover that their sisoals are signals. Not only the character. fstielly buman iovestion of language era then folow, but alto all the complantes of empathy, {eutScaton, projec. tion, and so on. And with these comes the possibilty of ‘con:munieating at the rauliplicity of levels of abstraction men- toned above. (8) The fist defnite step in the formulation of the bypothesis guiding thiz research occurred in Jaouary, 1952, whea I went to the Fleishhacker Zoo in Soa Francisco to Took for behavioral criteria which would indicate wheth y given orsanism {s or is not able to recognize that s emitted by itself and other members of the spe Jn theory, I bad thought out what such criteria might look like—that the occurresce of metacor:municative signs (oe sicnals) in the stzeama of interaction between the animals would indicate that the animals have at Jeast some ‘awareness (conscious or unconscious) that the sigus about Which they metacomennicate are signals. Tikzevs, of courte, that there was no ikeliood of fading Aenotative messages amzog nonkuman mammals, but 1 was stl not aware th3t the aniimal dats would require an almost total revision of my thinking, What I encountered at the 200 was a phenomenoa weil Kiowa to everybody: T saw two young monkeys playing, Le engaged in an interactive s0- queace of which the unit actions or signal: were similar to But not the sams as those of cvenbat. It was evident, even to the human observer, that the sequence as a whole was not conbat, and evide:t to the human observer that to the 3 this was “not combat.” his phenomenon, play. could only occur if the par Ucipant organisms were eapable of ‘some dearee of meta- communication, 4c, of exchanging signals which, would carry Steps to on Ecology of Mind ‘was the examination of the message realization that this message contains In necessarily generate a paradox of the180 Ruuellan or Epimenides negative statinent con taining an dmplct negative metasatenent. Expanded, the jestonest “Tae ply. Tsk sting Ie ht: The tions in which wwe now engage do not denote what those \fetions for chich they sand would deonte:" ‘We now atl about th facied words, “Jor which they stand We say the sr “at sandy for any tember frtnin eles, That fey te phrace “stands fot" is 9. bear of “denotes If we nove substitute “which they the words “Tor shih they stand” in the ex Steps to an Ecology of Mind panded defsition of play, the result is: “These actions, ia which we now eagaze, do not denote what would be do noted by those actions which these actions denote.” The playful nip denotes the bite, but it does not denote what would be desoed by the bite “According to the Theory of Logical Types much a message is of course inadmissable, bocaute the word “enate” it be: ing used in to degrees of abstraction, and these two uses are treated a8 synonjrnots. But all that we learn from such a criticism is that st would be bad natural history to expect the mental processes and communicative habits of mammals to coaform to the logician’s ideal. Indved, if human thou and communication always conformed t@ the ides, Russel ‘Would notin fact could not—have forated the ide (5) A telated grobiem in the evel ‘of whatever Kind, it denotes ("The er, language be: st of iow objects whi word ‘cat’ caanot serat y he at the huinan level ie only posse oftr Sroluon af a eompes stuf meta Ct ot fied)" rules whic govern hove words and sentences sha bo related to objets and event, Tt therefore appeopents iors at pel Tove, hi Seience and Sanity, New York, Seienee a Steps to on Ecology of Mind 31 1, Te appears from what is said above that play is a phenom- toon Le wich the actions of “play” aro related. lo, oF Gecote, other actions of “no* play.” We therefore meet ia cof signals standing for other events, snd Trappears, therefore, that the evolution of play may have been an important step in the evolution of communication, i ch resembles play fa that actions det rent from, other actions. ‘Tho clenched fist of threat is ditferent from the punch, but it cefers to a possible future (but at present nonexistent) punch. And threat also is commenly recognizable among non Eonaa mammals, Indeed it has lately been argued that a great part of what appears to be combat among members of 2 single species is raider to be regarded as Useat (Tin- bergen," Lorenz"). @ ic Uchavior and deceit are other examples of the ‘occurrence of map-terrtory differentiation, ‘Ard ‘there is ovidence that dramatization occurs among birds: a jackdaw may imitate her own mood:signs (Lorenz), and deceit has been observed among hossler imankeys (Car- eater!) (8) We might expect threat, play, and histonies to be tive independent phenomena all contributing to the evel ticn of the diterimination between map and But it iat this would be wrong, at Jeast so far as mammalian wunieation is eoncemed. Very brisf analysis of ci fine shows that such combinations as histrionic pla Playful threat, teasing play in response to threat, bi tronie threat, and go on form tozther a single total complex omena, And suc adult phenomenn a5 gambling and ring with rik have their roots ia the coimbiaation of Beta np ie stones tat ont te reciprocal af threat—the behavior of the Uhrextered ine SN. Tiats igh Reference 9 Vertebrates, Lowboyn, Methuen, 2, Lorene, King Solomon's, Ring, New York, Cro well, 52. "hid.i 182 ‘Steps to an Ecology of Mind divdual—are a part of this complee. Is probable that ni only histionies but sli spectatorship should be included Wihin this Bld, Te also appropriate to mention selenite (8) A farther extension of this thinking lace us to Inds ritual within this general Seld in which the discrimination is drawn, but not compictely, between denotative action aed that which Is to be denstel. Anthropological stad’ af peacemaking ceremonies, to cite only one example, supe port this conclusion. 7 . Ta the Andaman Islands, peace is concluded after each side has been given cexemonta freedom to strike the of This example, strates the hie nature of te frame “This is play.” or “This i ritual” The discrimination Derveen map and testtony iv always lable to bresk down, and the ritual blows of peace-maing are elways liable to be mistaken for the “teal” blows of combst, In tht event, oe Pescemiting ceemony "becomes Basle (Radcve (G10) But this leads us to recognition of a more come! form of ply; the game which ir comtncted not up t premise "This ip play” but rather around the queston "ls ths play? And dhs type of Interaction alo has its isl fom, e gn the hainz of ination (1) Barador i aaubly present exchanerd within the conte of ony duce the pi denoted by the bite the bite Hcl nok quite mean what the tall acing vf which does no ex @ human lve, sie Teale to a vast warty of cl insersios im the Gels of pli famtany. aed Et Cunjarers and puintere uf the trom Corl sch eon eentate upon aequlring a virtuosity wlvne only rected i fenced after the viewer detects tht be has boca deceised and is forced to smule or marvel at the skill of the deceiver ous of dallas to ie the signals which ae fantary, threat, te fal nlp not Coote what would be Wich Wt stande, but in nda, nt only do the playing ant are saying bat! so, they are: atclifeeown, The Andaman Islanders, ise, Cambridge University Press, 1922. Steps to an Ecology of Mind 183 ess achieve a strange addictive realism by equating the chips for whic they play with dollars. They still insist, however, bo js loss as part of the game. : = Finally, region where art, magic, and religion ‘moet und overlap, humaa beings have evolved the “meta. ing which men will die to save, and to be more than “an outward and visible sign, given unto sss.” Here we c2a recognize an attempt + fo deny the difference between mag and territory, and to : get bie to the absolute inmacence of communation by nears of pare movrlsigns. (12), We face then tro peculiarities of play: (a) that the messages or signals exchiansed in ply are in a certain sense tate or nnt meant; and () that that which is denoted by these signals is morcvistent, T3ese two peculiarities sometimes combine stragely to 4 reverse a conclusion esched above. Tt was stated (4) that the plavful nip de- potes the bite, but doet not denote that which would be denoted by the bite. But there are ather instances where aa ‘opposite phenomenon occurs. A man experiences the full ine teority of subjective terror when a spear is of te 3D sere oe hen he falls eal fcreated in his own mind ia the intensity of nigh the mnment of terror there was no questioning of “reali bot sill there wae no spear ia the movie house and no cli in the bedroum. The images did not denote that which th seemed to dennte, but tiese sime limazes did really evoke phor the suce Ghat terow which woskl hase been evoked by a real spear or a real precipice, iy a sar tl diction, the finemikers of Holiywond a7 to a purl hich vast range of pocudasexual fantasy fy David arel Dathshe je tink between David and Uri in adersen, the hero starts out ac jes to get a worn, hut when he és Sitempt, he returns to the bey. In all of hhominsesuslity, but the choice of Joviated in these faatasies with certain leas, eg, abomtthe hopelessness of the het- masculine position when facet with certain sorts a of with ettain sorts of male authority. In sem, the tanical public othenwivn would not be th Bathslcha can he a Tr And in Hans Chis ‘of course, A1st Steps to an Ecology of Mind eedohomoseruality of the fantasy docs not stand for any Fes homseralty, but does stand for and express atutets which might accomzany a real komoserulity or feed its etiological roots. The symbols do not deaate Romoresval bat do denote ideas for which hemosewuality f ae app: symbol. Evidently to re-examine the preciza semantic validity of the interpzetatioes whied the psychi offers to a patient, and, as preliminary to this anal will be necessary to examine the natice of the fr which these interpretations are offered, (13) What has previously beea sald about play ean be used a5 an introductory example for the diseusion of frames and contests. In sum, it is our hypothesis that the mest “This is play” estabishes a paradosieal frame comp: Epimenides’ paradox. This frame may be dingrammned thus: ‘All statements with frame are ustrve, Llove you. Th: ment within this frame is a self-contradi #. If this frst statement is true, thea it be fale, then it must be true. Dut ‘ais ch it all the other statements ia tke st siaterirnt be true, then all the othe ‘versa, if the frst statement be un'rue saponin 3 Fratt be fae. if romains a Lys in the frame jee w levels, We assume, and this seems to upton, that primary process is cuneate Steps to an Ecology of Mind 183 yersting, and that the psychological validity of the para- Cer piey ena pres voon oe pace el (15) But, conversely, w itis necessary e oe i Ee and of "some fiom betaca call” and "sone." Wis See aarp eee peat peo ioe oe re atandelies kekweon pay ad ono oo eseiaees abeere taren jeer rect oe eon Whe kee 2 follyws that the play ts an exglanatory principle implies 3. special combin rimary and Secondary processes. This, hoy:ever, Eoeict was sold cation when it wap fegved Evia step fanean fi colton of eonmanitinom the erecil step la the discovers of map-eritory elon Ih pamaty proces, map and teritory are equated; In sce? sedan proces they cas be dvenmincd, te'play, they re Grinted aad discriminated, (iG) Annie intransitive. {ng ie rotation conven greater in psycholagieal proce hin” Hs typical in this if A i greater than tansitive. for QQ mn for P. Spe the circle is st is itself to be taken as a (CE. the ineSteps to an Ecology of Mind 187 recognized, and even reoresented in vocabulary (*pla.” w," “job,” “language,” ete.). In other ceases, there may de nd explicit verbal reference to the frame, and the subject may have no consciousness of it. The analyst, however, finds dhat his own thinking is simplified if hhe uses the rotivn of an unconscious frame af an explanatory. eves further than this and infers its subject's enconsefous. But while Us mathematical set is perhaps of the picture frame is excessively 186 Steps to en Ecology of Mind Jocb.!9 The paradigm for all paradoxes of this ganeral type is {Russo's “class of classes which are not members of them. "elves." Here Russell demons by Seating the Caesitve) With this caver, that the tive, we shall use the word “premise” to denote a dependency of one idea or message upon ancths ndency of one prea esition ugoa another which is referred to in logic by s3s0g that the provvsition P isa promise for Q. ) AU this, however, leaves unclear what is me ntext.” To clarify it is necessary to insist Grst that Ubose are psycholozical cun- We use two sorts of analogy to discuss these notion ll analogy of the picture frame and sill not psychological, aaalo: a set theory the ‘mathematicians have dev. rigor the logical i physical frame y Ph ures because these human beings operate more is these characteristics ie externalization as trative device. (US) The com:non funtion framers say be ted and Th and uses of psycholoiel stated by reference 10 the en ilustate a fopole isful actions) within a frame, ce ee ti arecpion of te ees sie the pay © the ps be postively fahibited. an figure (ius this ease the picvire) must aver, : fed by an ire psychological frame has some dezre In many el frames are related to what we have called “pres Ihe is mot to use th the picture that he might use in interpreting U AW. S. MeCulloch, Btietin of Mets, Uiophyr, WAS. “Whitehead and Russell, op. cit, | e wallpaper; logy from st theory, tee messages eacoced witha the imagiay ie 2 [eee a6 meniers of a case by vitue of del honey feommioa premises oF mutual relevagee, The fram? itll tee Ibecorses § part of the premise systcen, Ei 10f the play frame, the frame is Involved inthe vats fof the sessages ‘which it conteing, oF Us frome, me ~ 'asvsts the mind fa understandiag tho contained messages reminding the thinker that these sven nd tg megs ube the rome Ts the sense of the previous. paragraph 9 fra { metecemmunicative, Any message, which either expli iy ees a fem po facto gies the structions or aids in his atteinpt {0 undesstand Ue mew included within the fra: (c) Tre converse of (I) i alo true, Every mets. communicative or metalinisie ‘messave deGnes eitzar or imply, test of mestages shout slic terme frst {ey ecoy miacomminintve mens is or d= nes a payebologteal frame, This, for example, is vey evident in rgatd to s0eh sal mclacorsmusieaoa Sg ak pune: 5 in a printed message, but applies equa ia the ease othe whole mvs of messages in poyeoth lerstood, Ee Telaton becoun paychological frame and sstalt needs to be considered, £ fre in wcll, woman figures and athee 1, 69 bole but aa indie 1 grote fag ich the figuce are to be percved hie heed Is fen unsasisind, as when we seo a Picco of sculpture it = {ink shop window, but hi a Steps to an Ecology of Mind 189 thst the nce for this outer Unit to the ground is rested toa | rales of abstation. When tion, ic, of the same “logical type" as those within the set parsdnx is to be avoided, the “class of of normatezboxes” (even though a at The pie frame tien, becouse fe Mas a eccialt oi ser spec pect pycho, rece iorant or | ‘shat was inistedabove| She plete ram ian istration to; viewer tat he ahosid not esto Ue premies which than between tie figures within the plete To the wall paper bind i i je any encloving Une be of the same logical type tthe pete frames as aad abe, = of one lgialtvpe fom thas of of frames and paradoxes may be il behavior, where theze types of message iuced: (a) Messages of 2 sortws; Steps to an Ecology of Mixa [iis message “This is pay” thus sets frame of tie sot Iwkich is Ukely to precipitate paradox: it is aa at wea, oF ta drow a line between, ca! ‘of play sad psychological fremes ex tsblstes a tipo of trade courtclidon (or 5) lesions) between messager Ose intsn level but also in the much more comple hhuan beings. A fentesy or myth may simutate 2 dows tive aarative, and, to oP: discourse, people use messages of Us framesetting” and zo on. . (21) Th conclus applying this thi ena of psyehoth most briely swering these questic (a) is there any indication that certain forms of psych patholozy are specifically characterized by abnormalities ia ing of frames and parado: ton that the tock: rnd upon the » we arrive at the compler task of approach to the particular phensma- Here the Lnes of our thuatin= may d by presenting and partislly aa- beripy necessarily de and parsdexes? a _=—=—=—seseseS the loss of ‘Steps to an Ecology of Atind 10h re is treated directly as a message of the more primary (This matter is diseu-sed at greater length in the paper at this Conference.) dence of psyskotherspy vpon the menip- ows from the fact that therapy is a9 ange the paticat’s ractacommunicative habits, int thinks and operates im terms of the making acd und: he operates in terms of 9 (Rules of this sort are in ceaezal, |. and unconscious toth before and after.) Tk smst have been rules. Thero must rales. 4 comseaiaton about change could nk cone cur ia meszazes ef the type permitted by the icy ued eer be I shove that the paradoxes of play are ry step. Here we sugzest that ss are a necessary ingredient ia that process ve call gaychot! ‘horapy and the process of sonar of play 4s, in fact, profound. Both ozeur within ied paychoiocteal frame, © spatial and temporal of a set of fnteractive messazes, In both play acd Nee i omer eon wa ie peseoomiek & sdolove cad ps iu process may. Imazie Je gune is wacaaaging, ecus. (Iudeed many at Ul for this reason.) We may fenag~ ment the two eanasta play sanding of |192 Steps to an Ecology of Mind {ers cease to play canasta and start a dizcussion of the rules, Their discourse is now of a different logieal type from that of their play. At the end of this discus: hat they rottimn top with modified rules This Sequence of events is, however, still an imperfect model of therape though it illustrates our Ws separation that {8 ine AS we se0 it, the proces of ie a Framed interaction between bo persons, fa which the mies are implicit but subject to change. Such fPhance can only be propoted by experimenta fveoy such exp ‘the rulos is 13s this combination of logical {ingful act that gives to tera game Lke canasia but, instnadh inerve that of thers Perch vig'an analozee af the frame EE lo. peeetsely ns 99 that pat cof tis materia eurotie is dsiven te suf his pros fastaiy contains trl iit Poe ione mnt Givower Us of shat hese mecpiines at eetopeorn (25) From the point of viow of the project, however, serpy consites ony one of tho many Feds Stops to an Ecology of Mind 193 wwestigate, Our ceatral thesis may be ement of the necessity of the peredoxes that the paradoxes of abstraction muct make their appear toe nal conus comple tng tat of signals, se parsdanet the, voi femmunication would be at an end. Life would then be an {Sitow Interchance of sqized mestages, a game with rigid: ae eae