Stuart BrownStuart Brown

Stuart Brown

Champion of play.

Trained in general and internal medicine, psychiatry and clinical research, Stuart Brown first recognized the importance of play by discovering its absence in the life stories of murderers and felony drunken drivers. His years of clinical practice and thousands of detailed clinical reviews affirmed the importance and need for healthy play throughout the human life cycle, and his later evaluation of highly creative individuals revealed the centrality of playfulness to their success and well-being. His recent years of independent scholarship and exploration of the evolution of human and animal play have helped to focus a central commitment bringing the promises and stories of play into general cultural consciousness and to the establishment of the National Institute For Play. His popular book, PLAY, How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul (2009) has been translated into seven languages.
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Philosopher's Notes on Stuart Brown's Books

Play
LockedPhilosopher's Notes

Play

by Stuart Brown

Play! Stuart Brown, one of the world's leading play researchers, tells us that it's more important than you may think. We'll take a quick look at why it's so important, why you don't want to be a sea squirt and how to make your life one big sand box while infusing more joy into your life.

Quotes by Stuart Brown

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The people who stay sharp and interesting are the ones who continue to play and work.
Stuart Brown
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When people are able to find that sense of play in their work, they become truly powerful figures.
Stuart Brown
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True mastery over a lifetime comes from one’s internal play compass.
Stuart Brown
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A lack of play should be treated like malnutrition—it’s a health risk to your body and mind.
Stuart Brown
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When enough people raise play to the status it deserves in our lives, we will find the world a better place.
Stuart Brown
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Play is like fertilizer for brain growth. It’s crazy not to use it.
Stuart Brown
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The beneficial effects of getting just a little true play can spread through our lives, actually making us more productive and happier in everything we do.
Stuart Brown
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When people know their core truths and live in accord with what I call their “play personality,” the result is always a life of incredible power and grace.
Stuart Brown
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The opposite of play is not work, it’s depression.
Stuart Brown
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Stepping out of a normal routine, finding novelty, being open to serendipity, enjoying the unexpected, embracing a little risk, and finding pleasure in the heightened vividness of life. These are all qualities of a state of play.
Stuart Brown
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Life without play is a grinding, mechanical existence organized around doing the things necessary for survival. Play is the stick that stirs the drink. It is the basis of all art, games, books, sports, movies, fashion, fun, and wonder—in short, the basis of what we think of as civilization. Play is the vital essence of life. It is what makes life lively.
Stuart Brown
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