Stephanie Coontz: There's something very safe about play, like, let's pretend as if. But couldn't that just tip quite easily into delusionlike, i can pretend that i rule the universe and have magical powers? Well, ok, you don't have to go to that extreme. Let's just take the case of your childhood example. So i'm a nine year old kid. I can drive, and i find the keysand i take off. Or, you know, i'm a first year medical resident. I can do open heart surgery. Come on, i've seen it three timesa that's why kids do it in play. And obviously every domain