Neoteny and the Playground of Pure Possibilities

Neoteny—the retention of juvenile traits in human adults, traits that characterize to some extent our juvenile or fetal evolutional ancestors—has been acknowledged, especially recently, as a decisive factor in human evolution. Such juvenile traits were insightfully understood by an eminent psychoanalyst, Donald Winnicott, in revealing how playing, for instance, plays a decisive role in the mental growth of children and, no less, in human coping with reality and in developing our culture, sciences, philosophy, and arts. From a panenmentalist viewpoint, I explicate what are the profound philosophical grounds for the great contributions of neoteny for us.