As time passed, Klein noted that the only way Richard could communicate was through games. So, in one of her sessions, she kneeled and began to play at the same level as Richard. In fact, Klein realized that if she asked questions to the boy, she did not receive an answer, not because Richard did not want to communicate, but because he had no language and speech to answer the questions. However, through the game, Richard could show what he meant instead of speaking. One day, Klein started playing with trains and asked, “Richard, if this train is dad, and this mom?” Richard took the train and smashed it against the wall, then ran and hid in a dark space between two rooms, a small and narrow corridor, and cried out, ”Gone!”
Klein, from this act and the gameplay, concluded that little Richard had a fear of the father, emanating from an abnormal resolution of the Oedipus complex. Richard hated his father, but knew the importance of the father in the family, so when he hit the train against the wall, he ran away and hid in a dark space between the two rooms to punish himself, because his nanny would also force him to sit alone in a dark room when he did something wrong…
Knowing this, Klein began to communicate with Richard through games, and instead of advising him with speech, she did so symbolically through play. Klein actually succeeded in introducing little Richard to the Symbolic Level. The lack of love and attention from his parents and problems with the Oedipus complex had resulted in psychological development without The Name of the Father. Richard was a subject without a “signifier” and it was not possible for him to establish contact with the Symbolic and Imaginary Levels, through which the Real Level can be understood and confronted. Thus, physiological changes and changes within the family were inexplicable to him, and the Real Level fell apart.
Klein provided The Name of the Father and through the game taught Richard how to make a connection between what was happening to him and how it looked in reality. In this way, Richard managed to go through the process of self-understanding. At the same time, through play, the boy learned the symbolic rules of the game, so that he could then socialize on his own.