Polcz Alaine 100 - The world through play - exhibition
Sep-08
The Mures County Museum - History Section hosts from Friday, May 17, at 5.00 pm, at the Cetate headquarters, the travelling exhibition dedicated to Polcz Alaine (1922-2007).
The exhibition entitled "Polcz Alaine 100 - The World through Play", rich in testimonies and manuscripts, will be held at the Petőfi Museum of Literature in Budapest in 2023 to mark the centenary of the birth of Polcz Alaine (1922-2007). It presents the complex and tumultuous life of the Hungarian psychologist and writer Polcz Alaine. The title of the exhibition evokes one of Alaine Polcz's most important professional achievements, a diagnostic method of treating children with psychological disorders in Hungary.
The method of diagnosis and therapy through play known as "World through Play" was developed by the English psychologist Margaret Lowenfeld, which Polcz Alaine adapted in the early 1960s to the needs of his work as a psychologist in Hungary. The supplies needed to apply the "World through Play" test are: a 70x50x7 cm tray with blue enamel - the colour of the sea -, sand to create land regions in the sea and a set of miniature replicas of real world objects: people of different sexes, ages and clothing, plants, animals, houses, means of transport, buildings, everyday objects. At the investigator's request, the child constructs his or her own world from these figures, which the psychologist evaluates according to professional criteria and makes a diagnosis. The World through Play test starts with a simple question: "Who are you in this world?" and guides the interviewee as follows: "You find here, on a small scale, everything that exists in the big world. From these you build a world you want. This will be your world!"
"The world through play" was also the inspiration for the visual concept of the exhibition and the way it was organized, by reconstructing the world of Polcz Alaine on the basis of test questions, in a modern and attractive museographic approach. Elements of his material heritage as well as texts from his scientific and literary work contributed to the creation of this world.
Polcz Alaine was born in 1922 in Cluj Napoca and later settled in Hungary in 1947, but never completely broke away from his native land. She was a writer, psychologist and pioneer of tanatology - a scientific discipline that examines death and bereavement from an interdisciplinary perspective, including medical, psychological, philosophical, ethical and sociological considerations. "...In my profession I am constantly confronted with death. This changes values, everything becomes relative. Kindness kinder because it is ephemeral, and trouble less important," says Polcz Alaine in one of his manuscripts.
He was a founding member of the Hospice Movement in Hungary, which laid the foundations for institutionalised palliative care for terminally ill patients and their relatives. A specialist in therapeutic methods for dying children, she created the diagnostic play test for children with psychological disorders. In addition to extensive publications on tanatological topics, such as children's understanding of death, the psychological experience of death and the subject of bereavement, she was the founder of the Hungarian tanatological journal "Kharon" and the author of a literary award-winning memoir about her personal experience of women's trauma during war. The memoir "A Woman on the Front" is Polcz Alaine's first work of fiction in which she recounts her own tragedy, wanting to show a friend in crisis that even seemingly hopeless situations have a way out.
The exhibition will be open until 31 October 2024 and can be visited from Tuesday to Friday from 09.00 to 17.00, Saturday and Sunday from 10.00 to 14.00.
POLCZ ALAINE 100 - WORLD THROUGH PLAY
Temporary exhibition
Opening: Friday, 17 May 2024, 17:00
Location: History Section (Târgu Mureș Fortress)
Visiting period: 17 May 2024 - 31 October 2024
Curator: Török Petra (Petőfi Literature Museum)
The exhibition entitled "Polcz Alaine 100 - The World through Play", rich in testimonies and manuscripts, will be held at the Petőfi Museum of Literature in Budapest in 2023 to mark the centenary of the birth of Polcz Alaine (1922-2007). It presents the complex and tumultuous life of the Hungarian psychologist and writer Polcz Alaine. The title of the exhibition evokes one of Alaine Polcz's most important professional achievements, a diagnostic method of treating children with psychological disorders in Hungary.
The method of diagnosis and therapy through play known as "World through Play" was developed by the English psychologist Margaret Lowenfeld, which Polcz Alaine adapted in the early 1960s to the needs of his work as a psychologist in Hungary. The supplies needed to apply the "World through Play" test are: a 70x50x7 cm tray with blue enamel - the colour of the sea -, sand to create land regions in the sea and a set of miniature replicas of real world objects: people of different sexes, ages and clothing, plants, animals, houses, means of transport, buildings, everyday objects. At the investigator's request, the child constructs his or her own world from these figures, which the psychologist evaluates according to professional criteria and makes a diagnosis. The World through Play test starts with a simple question: "Who are you in this world?" and guides the interviewee as follows: "You find here, on a small scale, everything that exists in the big world. From these you build a world you want. This will be your world!"
"The world through play" was also the inspiration for the visual concept of the exhibition and the way it was organized, by reconstructing the world of Polcz Alaine on the basis of test questions, in a modern and attractive museographic approach. Elements of his material heritage as well as texts from his scientific and literary work contributed to the creation of this world.
Polcz Alaine was born in 1922 in Cluj Napoca and later settled in Hungary in 1947, but never completely broke away from his native land. She was a writer, psychologist and pioneer of tanatology - a scientific discipline that examines death and bereavement from an interdisciplinary perspective, including medical, psychological, philosophical, ethical and sociological considerations. "...In my profession I am constantly confronted with death. This changes values, everything becomes relative. Kindness kinder because it is ephemeral, and trouble less important," says Polcz Alaine in one of his manuscripts.
He was a founding member of the Hospice Movement in Hungary, which laid the foundations for institutionalised palliative care for terminally ill patients and their relatives. A specialist in therapeutic methods for dying children, she created the diagnostic play test for children with psychological disorders. In addition to extensive publications on tanatological topics, such as children's understanding of death, the psychological experience of death and the subject of bereavement, she was the founder of the Hungarian tanatological journal "Kharon" and the author of a literary award-winning memoir about her personal experience of women's trauma during war. The memoir "A Woman on the Front" is Polcz Alaine's first work of fiction in which she recounts her own tragedy, wanting to show a friend in crisis that even seemingly hopeless situations have a way out.
The exhibition will be open until 31 October 2024 and can be visited from Tuesday to Friday from 09.00 to 17.00, Saturday and Sunday from 10.00 to 14.00.
POLCZ ALAINE 100 - WORLD THROUGH PLAY
Temporary exhibition
Opening: Friday, 17 May 2024, 17:00
Location: History Section (Târgu Mureș Fortress)
Visiting period: 17 May 2024 - 31 October 2024
Curator: Török Petra (Petőfi Literature Museum)
