Playtime with God: Peek-A-Boo, Object Permanence, and Anchoritic Permutations

Ancrene Wisse , the thirteenth-century manual for anchoresses, is the bestknown and most adapted text of religious instruction from early medieval England. Numerous late medieval devotional compilations draw directly from it and/or are inspired by it. One of the most commonly borrowed sections appears in Book 4, on temptation: a metaphor of a mother and child playing a game that explains God’s interaction with his faithful children. Though scholars often dub this interaction “hide-and- seek,” this article suggests that “peek-a-boo” is a more apt description. In Ancrene Wisse and some later treatises, the game results in increased (spiritual) object permanence within the faithful and urges the reader to actively seek God. With each subsequent borrowing of the passage, however, the game becomes less playful and more punitive. Maintaining a distinction between “peek-a-boo” and “hide-and-seek,” and considering the psychoanalytic implications of each, allows us to better see this progression.