He was learning through experience that feelings can twist and turn and lose their sharp edges. He was learning responsible control as well as expression of his feelings. Through this increasing self-knowledge, he would be free to use his capacities and emotions more constructively.
Virginia M. Axline, Dibs, In Search Of Self, 1964. Axline, who developed ‘Play Therapy’, here exquisitely describes self-regulation years before it was named and became a focus in the rest of child development literature.1