In this session of Connections and Conversations Phil Ringstrom will discuss how psychoanalytic play involves a rarified version of human communication. One which uniquely criss-crosses and melds primary and secondary process’ – wedding the unconscious and conscious mind. This experience arises unintentionally in states of spontaneous surprise. In so doing, it unvails aspects of self experience capturing the heretofore “unformulated and therefore unarticulated”. The psychoanalytic “play space” creates an emerging drama and narration involving aspects of both analytic participants. From this can emerge “involuntary affect states” such as unpredictable humor, grief, and depths of self-recognition. All of this involves tapping into and cultivating unconscious aspects of an unrecognized experience of an “essential self”. These experiences reflect that which “fits” and “rings true” to oneself. During our conversation, we will creatively traverse aspects of theory and clinical process, along with engaging in an unique world of psychoanalytic play through in vivo demonstrations.