Winnicott's Concept Research Articles

Why we need to talk about Bruno... attachment perspectives on Encanto and the problem with burying grief

This article examines themes of intergenerational trauma in the Disney film Encanto, and the relevance these themes might have for therapists working with those who suffer from intergenerational trauma. The film centres on the Madrigal family, a Columbian family who live in an unnamed village in an enchanted house, having been forced to move to flee violence. Members of the Madrigal family have special gifts. However, there is one member of the family, Mirabel, who does not appear to have a gift. It is Mirabel who notices the cracks in the foundations of the house (a metaphor for her family and their lives), and despite feeling inferior and different to her siblings and cousins is able to investigate further. She challenges the family culture, and goes in search of the mysterious Uncle Bruno. She then gathers the strength to embrace her sister with whom she had a conflicted relationship, and finally confronts her grandmother and the impact of her unresolved trauma. Drawing from Winnicott's concept of "false self", Bowlby's understanding of the impact of loss, and Herman's notions concerning the role of community in healing from trauma, inferences are made about the implications of these themes for therapeutic work.

Theatre for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties: A Winnicottian perspective

AbstractThe London‐based Oily Cart theatre company aims to produce shows that are suitable for all young people. This paper closely examines one of their productions, Splish Splash, which was developed for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties. The paper's central purpose is to understand the value of this type of theatrical experience for these children. It argues that Winnicott's conception of play, and his account of the conditions that enable the capacity for play to unfold, provide a persuasive theoretical framework that makes sense of Oily Cart's achievement. Winnicott's framework can integrate the views expressed (in interviews) by adults who were involved with or observed the show; arguably it is also corroborated by more recent infant research.

When is it time to stop? When good enough becomes bad enough.

This article draws on Winnicott's concept of the good enough mother to discuss how to know whether a therapeutic situation is good enough to continue or bad enough to end. This dilemma is explored in terms of clinical syndromes, such as anorexia and pathological gambling, but focuses mainly on analyst-initiated endings, which are termed the 'Casablanca dilemma', based on an amplification of the ending of the film Casablanca. The author goes on to discuss such one-sided endings, drawing on interviews with 40 analysts and therapists about their clinical experience. A typology of bad enough endings is presented. The psychological differences between a good enough analysis as opposed to a bad enough one are explored through the ideas of Winnicott and Neumann.

Psychodynamic Treatment with the Addicted Person.

Psychodynamically trained clinicians have much to offer patients with substance use disorders, but lack a coherent model of treatment for addictions. This paper proposes a bipartite model for approaching addictive illness, separating the addicted person from their illness. Within this framework, the psychodynamic treatment approach seeks to discover and cultivate each person's unique humanity through the therapeutic relationship. Addiction and recovery are conceptualized not as states but as opposing dynamic forces within the individual, each requiring its own therapeutic approach. The seeds of psychodynamic work are planted from the onset of treatment through a therapeutic position of curiosity, nonjudgmental acceptance, empathy, kindness, honesty, and evolving trust. Unlike other treatment approaches, the therapeutic relationship takes center stage in driving the healing process. Countertransference challenges signal crucial opportunities to "flip the script" from dynamics of addiction to those of recovery. The author draws upon several models to illuminate this work. Khantzian's ego-deficit model describes areas of self-regulation vulnerability associated with addiction and conversely pathways to growth in treatment. Winnicott's concept of false self is translatable to the addictive self, while psychotherapy allows true self to emerge. Krystal's description of psychic trauma relates directly to the fragmentation and dissociation of experience in addictive illness. Clinical vignettes illustrate the themes discussed. Psychodynamic therapy offers the opportunity for healing of the deep psychic wounds afflicting many who suffer from addictive illness.

The Precedent of Good Enough Therapy During Unprecedented Times

The unprecedented nature of the coronavirus pandemic and clinicians’ own concerns for safety and stability amidst collective uncertainty have threatened to undermine our ability to trust what we already know about our clients and how to help them. Rather than search for a novel solution, I suggest that what we need during a shared crisis is to renew our trust in the existing ethos of good enough therapy, a metaphoric corollary to Winnicott’s concept of good enough mothering, which presupposes the realities of imperfection and uncertainty along the continuum of growth. Using personal reflections, clinical vignettes from my psychotherapy practice, and drawing from modern attachment theory, contemporary relational psychoanalysis, and object relations theory, I posit in this article that clinical social workers already possess the framework, skills, and knowledge needed to deeply understand and meaningfully work with clients as they, and we, endure shared trauma. Through the clinical material, I examine opportunities to make use of clients’ reactions, as well as my own, in order to deepen the therapeutic process. I discuss the necessity of holding the therapeutic frame with increased flexibility in light of my use of self-disclosure surrounding my COVID-19 diagnosis and recovery, and I assess the impact of this disclosure.

A revelação do diagnóstico de HIV/Aids e seus impactos psicossociais

INTRODUÇÃO: A Síndrome da Imunodeficiência Adquirida (AIDS) é a apresentação clínica de deficiência imunológica ocasionada pelo Vírus da Imunodeficiência Humana (HIV). A revelação deste diagnóstico é uma comunicação que afeta profundamente a vida das pessoas envolvidas tanto profissionais quanto pacientes. OBJETIVO: Este estudo tem o objetivo de analisar a revelação do diagnóstico de HIV/Aids, considerando seus impactos psicossociais, afetivos e neurocognitivos. MÉTODOS: Para compreender o processo comunicacional foram utilizados estudos de saúde coletiva e os impactos psicológicos, foram analisados à luz dos conceitos psicanalíticos de Donald Winnicott. A metodologia é de caráter exploratório e descritivo, com abordagem mista e predomínio qualitativo. Os instrumentos de coleta dos dados foram: prontuário do paciente; entrevista semiestruturada, que cotejou etapas do Protocolo SPIKES; o Mini Exame do Estado Mental e a Escala Hospitalar de Ansiedade e Depressão. Foi realizada a análise de conteúdo em dez entrevistas, referenciada em Laurence Bardin. RESULTADOS E CONSIDERAÇÕES FINAIS: Os resultados mostraram que a comunicação do diagnóstico apresentou diversos impactos psicossociais nos sujeitos e o acolhimento balizado pelos princípios do protocolo SPIKES demonstrou ser um excelente alicerce para a comunicação diagnóstica, principalmente, quando associado a arranjos ambientais suficientemente bons, tais como apoio familiar e acesso à informação, promovendo assim, maior adesão ao tratamento.

On teaching Winnicott: the charms and challenges of Winnicott's concepts

This article examines the responses of students on being introduced to several of Winnicott's major concepts: transitional space, illusion, good enough mothering, true and false self. Building on Ogden's idea that Winnicott's style of writing and form of presentation is inseparable from the ideas he wishes to convey, this article shows how students evolved a developmental framework for themselves with the aid of Winnicott's theory. The new theory itself becomes a transitional object for further use and elaboration. Various examples of student's responses to the paper on transitional phenomena are cited, in addition to an examination of their responses to the application of transitional theory to organisations.

D.W. Winnicott and Religion: The Intermediate Area of Experiencing as a Dissociative Phenomenon

Winnicott's concept of an ‘area of intermediate experiencing’ is a very important component of his understanding of religious and cultural practices. It is nonetheless a term that seems to have created considerable confusion and uncertainty among analysts and others. In this paper, I suggest, through a discussion of Winnicott's own work, a review of dissociative phenomena and a selection of illustrations, that the intermediate area of experiencing can be understood best when considered within the framework of a normal, voluntary dissociative or near‐dissociative process that is characteristic of many religious experiences generally. This approach suggests that religious practices and expressions need not be understood primarily on the basis of factual truth as Freud would have done. They also need to be considered on the basis of their meaning or value for the individual or society, as Winnicott suggests. Religious practices and expressions often can be understood as dissociative or near‐dissociative processes that have their own unique properties and characteristics that are separate from but related to the more usual expressions of logical, goal‐directed mental activity that are so valued in modern societies.

Creative failure: Stiegler, psychoanalysis and the promise of a life worth living

This paper examines Stiegler' use of psychoanalytic concepts, focusing on how the proletarianised or blissfully numb mind may begin to work its way towards 'a life worth living'. The emphasis is on the process rather than the final outcome. Winnicott's concept of relationality and Lacan's concept of time in analysis can be aligned to the concept of pharmakon. Stiegler's autobiographical account How I Became a Philosopher (2009) and the initially 'stupid' hero of the Lego Movie (2014) are used as examples.

Winnicott's Subjective Object: Merging experiences as preconditions of being

The author explores the clinical meaning of D. W. Winnicott's concept of subjective object. He describes an adult patient marked by the failure of her primary nurturing environment because of unworked-through grief and severely traumatic experiences that predated her birth. This failure forced the patient into a sort of “impossibility of being.” The author describes how an erotic transference represented an impulse for development and transformation for her because it took the shape of “holding” her embryonic capacity to experience illusion within the analytic relation. Last, the author illustrates how the gradual construction of the analyst as a subjective object allowed the patient to begin to work through both the traumas inherited from her primary environment and the unthinkable anxieties connected to them.

Intergenerational Transmission of Violence: Shattered Subjectivity and Relational Freedom

ABSTRACTThis article considers a relational perspective regarding the intergenerational transmission of the trauma of violence. The psychoanalytic literature suggests that parents often transmit the trauma of violence to their children in the form of projected nameless dread and unmentalized states that interfere with the children's emotional needs and support. The offspring absorbs the trauma, which manifests itself in the form of disorganized attachment and in turn leads to the development of a predisposition toward cocoon-like dissociative states. This study considers two clinical cases that examine the interpersonal dynamics of dissociative processes. The therapist's reverie about his ancestors' survival of depersonalizing violence and Winnicott's concept of the survival and the use of the object help the therapist find his or her identity and gain the relational freedom needed to overcome the dissociative state, thereby becoming an alive subject who is able to help the child patient.

The Function of the Expression “I am Unlucky” with Respect to Masochistic Personality

In this paper, complaints of "unluckiness," which are often heard in psychotherapy, are discussed with respect to masochistic personality. Luck is a concept that belongs to the outer world. However, the phrase "I am unlucky" can be a concept that becomes a part of one's own identity. Some clients in the therapy process, either explicitly or implicitly, express the idea that they are unluckier than other people. Seeing one's self as unluckier than others poses problems in the therapy process. The 'unluckiness' becomes a personality trait that is extremely difficult to handle, and thus, the therapist's job becomes just as difficult. Moreover, while luck is an outer world concept, unluckiness becomes a part of one's identity, and the boundary between the inner and outer worlds vanishes. In this paper, it is described how two clients in psychoanalytical-oriented therapy defined themselves as unlucky. The material from these cases is discussed using psychoanalytic concepts. An overly punitive superego, the need for punishment, death drive, and masochistic personality are the major axes of the discussion. It has been argued that in many instances where one describes him/herself as being unlucky, there may be an aggressive act in which the person aims harm at him/herself. The dynamics of this aggressive act are discussed. One of the major aspects of masochistic personality, the fantasy of "If I torture myself enough, eventually I will be loved" is also discussed. The view that the need for self-punishment or unconscious feelings of guilt may be obscuring feelings of grief is elaborated within the context of Winnicott's transition object concept. It has been argued that if the phrase "I am unlucky," which poses problems for therapists, is better understood, it may be better handled in the therapy process.

Parents toxiques, addictions et psychothérapie institutionnelle

AimsThe aim of this article is to present a clinical case in order to demonstrate how the compulsive use of toxic substances articulates with the shortcomings of the family environment. It also aims to show the pertinence of the treatment of addictions in psychotic patients within the multireferential setting of institutional psychotherapy. MethodThe analysis of the case of Léonard is based on metapsychological theories and the pluridisciplinary principles of institutional psychotherapy. More specifically, the article centers on the following: the Collective, and dissociated transfer, conceptualized by J. Oury; the Freudian theory of identification, melancholy and mania; Winnicott's concepts of the mirror and the transitional objet; the Complex of the Dead Mother by A. Green; the self-calming techniques theorized by the Psychosomatic School of Paris; the function of toxic substances as being pharmakon, namely poison and remedy, propounded by S. Le Poulichet; and theories disputing the purity of psychopathological structures (W.R. Bion, C. Chaperot, M. Czermak, R. Chemama, J.-D. Nasio). ResultsThe institution where I met Leonard encourages the free circulation of patients, their active participation in their cure, and cross-disciplinary treatments with special emphasis on sociotherapy, and constant work on the atmosphere, analysis and exploitation of multifocal transfers specific to psychotic patients. This approach appears to be liable to reduce both psychological alienation and social estrangement. The observation of Leonard, who has been testing this setting for 10 months after having experienced numerous years of individual psychotherapy, evidences tremendous emotional deprivation and animosity towards his parents, hidden behind the polished narrative of an idealized parental love. The patient, who is prone to massive absorption of alcohol and to several other types of self-intoxication, although he still does not seem capable of elaborating his emotions towards his progenitors, is beginning to gain some control over his compulsive behaviours as a result of his integration into the Collective setting. DiscussionClinical observation, backing up the anamnestic approach, leads to the hypothesis of an early withdrawal of the emotional involvement of Leonard's mother, who suffered from depression at the time of her son's birth, following the loss of her own father. This primitive disaffection most probably had disastrous consequences on her son's psyche, since a depressed mother is likely to be a psychologically “dead mother” (A. Green), a distorting reflection of her baby's internal image and a terrifying mirror of his destiny (W. Winnicott). The patient explains the calm that drugs provide him with, but refuses to admit that he derives any satisfaction from them, which suggests that the use of toxic substances is a self-calming strategy resembling the compulsive and repetitive movements or tics deployed by an infant whose mother is physically or psychologically unavailable and/or unwilling to satisfy his needs. The emotional abandonment of Leonard was probably compounded by a substantially absent father, preoccupied with success, money and his spouse's unfaithfulness. Suicide attempts with his father's painkillers or vehicle, along with the explicit perception of his father as toxic, could provide some understanding of Leonard's compulsive behaviour as being a means of expending his anger towards his father. Overall, the act of taking toxic substances appears as a form of self-medication liable to fill the narcissistic gaps caused by this dual deprivation in his early family environment, an effort to “do without” the other. Moreover, the coexistence of neurotic and psychotic mechanisms in Leonard's mental function encourages debate on the existence of pure, unadulterated psychopathological structures. ConclusionThis suggests a diagnostic hypothesis of partial dysthymic psychosis, that is to say a mainly psychotic structure with elements of mania and melancholy, dominated by foreclosure and compounded by neurotic features caused by the mechanism of repression. I suggest that the structuring of the patient was heavily influenced by his parents’ unconscious pact to forbid their son to be and to be born. Furthermore, the fragmented transference investments that psychotic patients tend to make without distinction towards any person who gravitates around them, as well as towards a wide range of objects, leads us to conceive the pluralistic setting of institutional psychotherapy as a setting of living objects able to pacify the internalized, noxious parents and replace the toxic, inhuman, fetishized objects.

The Music Therapist in School as Outsider

This essay examines the institutional commonalities among several schools in which I have worked as a music therapist, illustrating how thinking about my role as an outsider has informed my therapeutic approach. I refer to the broader concept of the outsider as it relates to both fictional and historical figures and in particular to Sherly Williams's article ‘The Therapist as Outsider: The Truth of the Stranger‘ (1999) in which she compares the therapist to the archetypal figures of the fool and the seer. Finally, I link these ideas to Winnicott's concept of play, presenting the music therapist's role in school as that of an advocate for fostering creative impulses, which can at times be at odds with (or perhaps complementary to) the central educational aims of the school.

Sob o pé do castanheiro: histórias que perpassam um Serviço Residencial Terapêutico

A personagem enlouquecida amarrada ao pé do castanheiro de "Cem anos de solidão" serve-nos de metáfora para as amarras que a institucionalização pode propiciar. Como fazer para que uma Residência Terapêutica (RT), por não oferecer as mesmas amarras das instituições psiquiátricas, possa ter a função de um espaço transitório para outro lugar? Para tentar responder esta questão construímos uma aproximação entre o ambiente facilitador e o meio que a RT representa a partir dos conceitos de Winnicott.

Winds of Consciousness: An Analysis of Revolutionary Narratives and Praxis

INTRODUCTIONThis paper intends to provide revolutionary narratives accounting for of political mobilization, participation, and organization. The tradition of psychoanalysis calls for attention to quality development of identity. Sociocultural theories of education and social reconstructivists emphasize life as narrative resulting from dynamic interactions among social, cultural, and personal factors that, turn, influence life construction and identity formation. According to Winnicott (1971) and Freire (1970), interactions or experiences that are attributed to development of selfand worldconsciousness come to exist through awareness of these relationships. Winnicott conceptualized phenomena as catalyst contact points at which people's subjectivity is distinguished and which identity emerges from the specific [and] quality experience. Guerra (2006) describes area, one's perpetual state of attachment undergoes a transition and moves to another state of beings (Guerra, 2006, p. 69). However, not all experiences are pertinent to identity development or are able to impact narrative patterns. In addition, phenomena are not yet identifiable and remain as something indescribable, [and] undefined (p. 69). Turner discussed state of liminality (Turner, 1969) as a threshold of transitional consciousness. McLaren's work Schooling as a Ritual Performance provides nuanced insights into pedagogical moments creating educational engagement, classroom instruction urban schooling context through anthropological lens of ritual. McLaren's work, particularly his research on resistant culture schooling, reveals that liminal experiences are those with symbolic, historical and lived meaning . . which contest legitimacy, power and significance of culture [and hegemony] (p. 146). In realm of liminality, social dramas, a series of breach, crisis, redressive action and reintegration (cited McLaren, p. 301), are enacted as rituals which people's subjectivities challenge dominant structure and consequently deauthorize and re-appropriate it. Symbolic events, performative rituals, and enactments of social dramas resemble Winnicott's concept of transitional phenomena. Similarly, liminal states of consciousness, people undergo the intermediary [...] experience which power and identity are calibrated through social relations and in intermediary area of feeling that one is truly alive (Guerra, 2006, p. 72).Cultural Work and Cultural WorkersSocial transformation is a massive movement of power, and power mobilization results organization of people and resources. Mobilization is persuasion. Rubin's analysis (2002) shows that mobilizing efforts are contextually specific, culturally meaningful, and historically inspired. Furthermore, political acts are ideologically instigated and affectively contagious. Hence, revolution demands objective conditions political and historical contexts. Subjective conditions are also indispensable (Guevara, 2003); that is, there exists a sense of exceptionalism (Guevara, 2003) that is characterized by historical uniqueness or particular factors, such as discipline leadership or symbolism revolutionary narratives. Rubin emphasized that idea is to be essentialised (2002) to be sufficiently generative and abstract for inclusive interpretation. For Rubin, goal of this idea is to enchant (Rubin, 2004).Eric Wolf, from tradition of Marxist historical anthropology, argues that to effectively transcend social strata and divisions, ideas [must] become concentrated into ideologies that are interpretive or representative of identity of masses and that are capable of inspiring general sentiments people. Wolf (Portis-Winner, 2006, p. 341) discusses conditions that mobilize social relations: (1) power of potency characterized by particular individuals; (2) an ego to impose its will for social action upon another; (3) tactical or organizational power, which individuals circumscribe actions of others; and (4) structural power that, if sufficiently powerful, organizes settings and specifies direction and distribution of energy flow. …

Winnicott and Arendt: bridging potential and political spaces.

In this article, the author seeks to bridge analytic theory, which is used as an interpretive framework to understand patients' psychic lives, and political philosophy, which accounts for individuals living a life in common as citizens. Specifically, I address how we can understand the relation between the psychosocial space of a parent(s) and child interaction, which becomes part of the child's psychic life, and the political space between and within citizens. The underlying claim is that there is a correlation between political space and the space between parent and child. I use an emended version of Donald Winnicott's concept of potential space and political philosopher Hannah Arendt's notion of the space of appearances to suggest connections between the consulting room and political space.

Zone of proximal development (ZPD) as an ability to play in psychotherapy: A theory‐building case study of very brief therapy

This theory-building case study examined the zone of proximal development (ZPD) in psychotherapy within the assimilation model. Theoretically, the ZPD is the segment of the continuum of therapeutic development within which assimilation of problematic experiences can take place. Work within a problem's current ZPD may be manifested as a Winnicottian ability to play, that is, an ability to adopt a flexible reflexive stance to the presenting problem and be involved in joint examination of possible alternatives. Play may be recognized in the client's receptivity to and creative use of the therapist's formulations of the presenting problems. A case was selected from a comparative clinical trial of two very brief psychotherapies for mild to moderate depression, the Two-Plus-One Project (Barkham, Shapiro, Hardy, & Rees, 1999, J. Consult. Clin. Psychol., 67, 201). Martha, a woman in her late forties, received two sessions of psychodynamic-interpersonal therapy 1 week apart and a follow-up ('plus one') session approximately 3 months later. Dialogical sequence analysis was used to analyse the transcripts of the three sessions. The analysis revealed Martha's problematic action pattern, which remained unchanged throughout the three sessions. Her ability to use and elaborate the therapist's formulations depended on the referential object that the therapist addressed; in particular, she seemed unable to play with the therapist's formulations of her more problematic experiences. The case helped elucidate how the ZPD is content dependent. Winnicott's conception of playing emphasizes the quality of client response as an indicator of this content sensitivity. Differing breadths of major problems' ZPD, manifested as differing abilities to play with therapists' formulations may explain why some clients improve in psychotherapy while some do not. Accessing very problematic content may be very difficult even though the client's ability to mentalize other material appears ordinary. Mildly depressed clients who have developed powerful care-taking coping strategies may not respond to very brief therapeutic interventions. A client's minimal acknowledgements may mislead the therapist into supplementing the client's failing self-reflection rather than addressing the issue that provokes this failure.

Listening and Learning from Gender-Nonconforming Children

The twenty-first century brings to our clinical doorsteps increasing numbers of children exploring and questioning their gender identities and expressions. This paper begins with a reassessment of the psychoanalytic thinking about gender and then outlines a clinical and developmental model of gender adapted from D. W. Winnicott's concepts of true self, false self, and individual creativity. The underlying premise is that gender nonconformity, when the core psychological issue, is not a sign of pathology but rather a reflection of healthy variations on gender possibilities. Working from that premise, composite clinical material from the author's practice as a psychoanalytic gender specialist is presented of a gender-nonconforming child transitioning from female to male, to demonstrate the psychoanalytic tools applied, including listening, mirroring, play, and interpretation, with the goal of facilitating a child's authentic gender self. Emphasis is placed on learning from the patient, working collaboratively with the family and social environments, and remaining suspended in a state of ambiguity and not-knowing as the child explores and solidifies a True Gender Self.

On Holding and Being Held: Hart Crane’s Queer Intimacy

And have been able to give freedom and life which was acknowledged in the of walking in across the most bridge of the world, the enclosing us and pulling us upward in such a dance as have never walked and never can walk another. --Hart Crane In his rapturous description of crossing Brooklyn Emil Opffer, the sailor whom he shared the most intense affair of his short life, the lovestruck Hart Crane imagines New York's monument to modernity as a kind of rocking cradle. Crane's beautiful bridge encloses and lifts Hart and Emil, offering refuge and support while they experience their ecstasy (Letters 181). Just as a cradle replicates the environment of the mother's body, Crane's experience of the bridge--whose cables breathe as its arms lift in the address To Brooklyn Bridge that begins his 1930 epic The Bridge--also recalls the earliest scene of intersubjective intimacy (Poems 46). For the object relations psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott, is both the first stage of satisfactory parental care and a form of loving. Winnicott stresses that the term holding denotes not only the actual physical of the infant which starts of course in inter-uterine life, but also the total environmental provision prior to the concept of living with (Maturational 43). (1) Yet beside the image of being safely held, up, and, implicitly (in their ec-stasy) together by the other, the passage depicts the intimate hand-holding of the two lovers. The symmetrical touching of hand in hand, performed syntactically in the phrase's chiasmus, contrasts the clear asymmetry of the bridge's maternal holding. In what we might be tempted to dismiss as an embarrassingly sentimental letter, Crane hints at the possible complexities of intimacy, suggesting two distinct models of object relations; two distinct somatic and affective partnerships. This article explores intimate contact in Crane's two published volumes of poetry--White Buildings (1926) and The Bridge--and in several of his uncollected poems. am interested in the ways Crane's work explores the conceptual and spatial bounds of intimacy--especially how it relies on confusion between sexual and non-sexual registers and affects, and is predicated on a dynamic between containment and space. Evoking Winnicott's concept of unintegration--a state in which one can safely experience the feeling of falling apart because another holds the environment--I explore an alternative to the Lacanian emphasis on jouissance that has dominated queer readings of Crane's poetry. Finally argue that Crane's poetry articulates (and enacts) an intense desire for a hard-won reciprocal intimacy based on recognition, a form of intersubjective exchange that may be illuminated by the psychoanalysis of Jessica Benjamin. Following Benjamin, we might characterize the two distinct models of intimate partnership in Crane's Brooklyn letter by the terms and complementarity. Classical psychoanalysis, Benjamin argues, has stressed complementarity in interaction over mutuality. The other is represented as an answer, and the self as the need; the other is the breast, and the self is the hunger; the other actively holding, the self is actively being held (47-48). Significantly, Benjamin claims that such complementary dual unity forms the basic structure of domination, while mutuality forms the path to recognition and equality. want to suggest that the distinction between these relationships is key to Crane's exploration of intimacy. While Crane's lyric I sometimes wants or even needs to be held, he also aspires towards a form of recognition characterized by such tropes as mutual looking and handholding. As Langdon Hammer notes, Hands and eyes are the parts of the body that fashion bonds in Crane's poetry, and the marks that they frequently bear testify to the extreme difficulty of this task: 'blamed bleeding hands' in 'For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen,' the swimmers' 'lost morning eyes' in 'Voyages II' (130). …