Introduction to Volume 5

Abstract

Volume 5 concerns Winnicott’s writing at the height of his career, between 1955-1959, in which his thinking and his personal and professional life are put into a broad historical context, from Winnicott’s medical education and discovery of Freud to his double career in paediatrics and psychoanalysis. The introduction to this volume covers this period of great social and political change, including discussion of papers and letters relating to the conflicts within the British psychoanalytic world, in particular with Melanie Klein (whose monograph Envy and Gratitude was published in this period), as well as John Bowlby and Anna Freud. A range of papers, reflecting the wide scope of his audiences during this period, are discussed, including ‘The Anti-Social Tendency’, ‘Primary Maternal Preoccupation’, ‘The Capacity to be Alone’, and the book publication of ‘Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena’.