Dr. Stuart Brown began his studies of play by observing profound play deprivation among young men who had been imprisoned for homicides, beginning with the University of Texas Tower mass murderer. The evidence of the devastating damage of play deprivation prompted Dr. Brown’s lifelong interest in the topic, and over the course of his clinical career, he interviewed thousands of people to capture their play profiles. These carefully catalogued profiles demonstrated the active presence of play in the accomplishments of successful individuals, as well as the negative consequences that accumulated in play-deprived lives. He began an in-depth study of play science in the 1990s, pursuing fragmented research on human play, observing animal play in the wild, and becoming acquainted with some of the world’s foremost animal behaviorists who were studying play behaviors in mammals. His book exploring this research, Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, was published in 2009. He founded the National Institute for Play to promote widespread understanding of play as a tool that can transform lives.
Most Influential Work:
- Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul (New York: Penguin, 2009) traces the science of play from its earliest inception to the most recent neuroscientific breakthroughs, explaining the biological foundation of — and need for — human play.
- “Consequences of Play Deprivation”
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