Doll play is generally recognized as fulfilling many of the psychological needs of children; the need for play, first steps to learning to nurture, role playing and many more. But what about the Doll play of adults?
Elinor Peace Bailey is a renowned doll maker, teacher, artist, poet and author. Eighteen years ago she wrote Mother Plays With Dolls with the subtitle “…and finds an important key to unlocking creativity.” In the first part of the book Elinor describes her journey towards doll artistry, and in particular, her exposure to transactional analysis.
Now, if you are not familiar with TA, in simplest terms it teaches that we function from three personality states: Parent, Child and Adult, (and various subdivisions of these three) and that we act out to others and to ourselves through these states. As an example, when you are at work you might need to criticize a subordinate; you would be critical like a Parent.
Elinor believes that much of her creativity and artistry comes from her inner child. Her thoughts are that ‘play’ is a function of the inner child, and that creativity is a form of play — playing with materials, playing with ideas, etc.
Play, she believes is therefore intrinsically creative… free form, imaginative, open-ended, fantastical and childlike, and I think that this defines the difference between child play with dolls and adult play with dolls.
When children play with dolls, they don’t need permission to be creative, to role play, to be nurturing, to have an imaginary tea party. Psychologists for years have recognized doll play as healthy and therapeutic.
But when we adults play with dolls, I believe we get all those same benefits, PLUS, by playing like children we unleash our creative potential like children.
Thanks, Elinor for the insight. I’m going to go unleash some creativity now. I’m going to go play with my dolls. Bye.
PS: For my writer friends facing writer’s block… “Got Dolls?”
