The Influence of Psychoanalysis on Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy and the Pulsional Body in the Gaming Experience

ABSTRACTIn this essay, we address the influence of psychoanalysis on Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of the esthesiological body. Our analyses are about the relation of senses and meanings established among the notions of game, sport and ludic, dialoguing with esthesiology and with the pulsional body, based on Freud's psychoanalytic referential, also approached by Merleau-Ponty. Our interlocutor considers that the expression of play in language seeks to situate the body, perception, and desire as primordial sources in the process of signification, presenting a different way of conceiving the problem of ambiguity of the word game, based on a lacunar, indirect, and nascent conception of language. Merleau-Ponty's philosophy beckons to an alternative and possible path in the movement of re-reading the game and the ludic, including the dialogue with Psychoanalysis concerning the relations of the pulsional body with the game and the play in shaping the feeling of existence, and broadening the horizons of the philosophy of sport.KEYWORDS: Playludiclanguagepulsionbody Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. Winnicot (Citation1975) distinguishes the transitional object from the internal object in Melanie Klein because the former is not a mental concept, but a possession. ‘The transitional object is never like the internal object, under magical control nor, like the real mother, out of control’ (Winnicot Citation1975, 42).2. Reference to the internalization of object relations in the infant psyche. The good breast becomes a source of security, goodness, gratitude, while the bad breast intensifies anguish, hatred and envy. Melanie Klein in her analytical technique understands that psychic health and the ability to love and repair depend on the integration of these objects, elaborating the ambivalence between love and hate and thus allowing a decrease in anguish and an increase in frustration tolerance and the ability to love, be loved and create bonds (Cintra and Figueiredo Citation2010).