‘On the seashore of endless worlds, children meet’. ‘The great meeting of children’, as a ‘potential space’ for the construction and training of social minds and brains

Donald Winnicott analysed the fundamental function of play in the growth and development of the individual, and the Rabindranath Tagore poem he cites is a delightful depiction of childhood play and its corresponding adult reality. This paper will explore the role of play in social life, the development of interpersonal relationships, and psychotherapy or training. Reference will be made to Winnicott’s work, and to what biology — particularly the neurobiology of the mind — can shed light on.