Winnicott's Ideas Research Articles

Gender, Power and Crib Geography: Transitional spaces and potential places

ABSTRACT D. W. Winnicott's notion of 'transitional space' is noted as a potentially important contribution to post-Englightenment thinking because it decenters reason and logic in favor of playing with and making use of as the qualities most characteristic of human being. Winnicott is also, perhaps, the one child development theorist whose speculations parallel most closely contemporary post-modern interests of geographers. His principal concerns are how children (and adults) bridge the gap between egocentricism and recognition of an external world and how they distinguish between self and other. Unlike Piaget, Freud or Lacan, Winnicott does not problematize the separation of the child and her external environment primarily in terms of objective distancing, naming, rationalizing or compartmentalizing. Rather, Winnicott describes the place of play and child development in terms of transitional spaces which, we argue, bear close resemblance to the ideas which surround Henri Lefebvre's trial by space. In part, our intent is to spatialize Winnicott's ideas and to give specific form to some of Lefebvre's abstract notions of how space is produced. Winnicott's ideas are particularly intriguing for geographers because transitional spaces are theorized as the spaces out of and from which culture arises. As with play (an object), in culture there is something to make use of (a tradition), but the child/adult also has the capacity to bring something of her inner self to the tradition. In addition to discussing the potential of a link between the work of Lefebvre and Winnicott, the paper discusses the value to geography of post-structural feminist Jane Flax's recent interrogation of Winnicott's ideas. Flax's concern is to rework Winnicott's ideas from a feminist perspective and apply them to an account of identity formation which focuses upon justice and the play of differences. Transitional spaces help conflate notions of self and place, but they are also places wherein liberatory notions of justice and difference may develop.

Some images of the analyst's participation in the analytic process

This paper was originally presented at a workshop (with G. Atwood and S. Parks) on The analyst's participation in the analytic process’. The analyst's ‘vulnerability’ is highlighted, with specific reference to the ideas of Winnicott, Searles and Jung. Some personal metaphors for the nature of the analytic engagement are offered, as is the image of the ‘troubled analyst’ from a patient's dream. The burden and necessity of the analyst's participation are emphasized.

On the otherness of being: Winnicott's ideas on ‘object usage’ and the ‘experience of externality’

On the otherness of being: Winnicott's ideas on ‘object usage’ and the ‘experience of externality’

The dangers and deprivations of too-good mothering

Abstract The paper explores Winnicott's ideas on the detrimental effects of mothering which is too well adapted to infant needs. Winnicott claimed that such too-good mothering, when pursued beyond the baby's earliest months, led to two possible outcomes: the child would either reject the mother or would remain in a state of arrested development, merged with her. The paper follows the development of a baby girl, observed by the Bick method, and illustrates how her mother's devoted and sensitive care effectively deprived her of the development of some aspects of the sense of self and of possibilities for negotiation, concern and reparation. The baby developed a paranoid orientation and later rejected her mother after the birth of her sister. The paper also mentions the alternative outcome of a persisting state of passive merger with the mother and ends by hoping for further exploration of the means by which some sensitive, responsive parents may inadvertently ‘worse than castrate’ their children by deprivin...

Toward a conceptual alliance about therapeutic alliance: a voyage through the Inferno.

I suggest that there is not a conceptual consensus in psychoanalysis regarding the therapeutic alliance. Some argue that the unobjectionable part of the transference should be facilitated; some argue that there is no unobjectionable part of the transference, that all parts should be subjected to analysis. There are those who argue that the therapeutic alliance exists in early treatment; others who argue that it exists later. I suggest using a classical text, Dante's Inferno, as a paradigm for a journey of self-discovery. By reviewing the moments of hesitation that Dante experiences with Virgil and how these are overcome, we cast light on our current problem on the nature of the therapeutic alliance and how to facilitate it. The components of the unobjectionable are related to Winnicott's idea of the maturational processes and Hartmann's (1958) ideas of the primary and secondary autonomous function. Based on their considerations, we make recommendations for use of the therapeutic alliance.

On Mathematical Visualization and the Place Where We Live

This paper is a case study of how a high school student, whom we call Karen, used a computer-based tool, the Contour Analyzer, to create graphs of height vs. distance and slope vs. distance for a flat board that she positioned with different slants and orientations. With the Contour Analyzer one can generate, on a computer screen, graphs representing functions of height and slope vs. distance corresponding to a line traced along the surface of a real object. Karen was interviewed for three one-hour sessions in an individual teaching experiment. In this paper, our focus is on how Karen came to recognize by visual inspection the mathematical behavior of the slope vs. distance function corresponding to contours traced on a flat board. Karen strove to organize her visual experience by distinguishing which aspects of the board are to be noticed and which ones are to be ignored, as well as by determining the point of view that one should adopt in order to ‘see’ the variation of slope along an object. We have found it inspiring to use Winnicott's (1971) ideas about transitional objects to examine the role of the graphing instrument for Karen. This theoretical background helped us to articulate a perspective on mathematical visualization that goes beyond the dualism between internal and external representations frequently assumed in the literature, and focuses on the lived-in space that Karen experienced which encompassed at once physical attributes of the tool and human possibilities of action.

Thoughts on tradition and innovation in the psychoanalytic training system

Abstract In this article, which was an introductory paper at a conference on psychoanalytic training (Psychoanalyse Lehren und Lernen) organized by Deutsche Psychoanalytische Gesellschaft in Gutersloh in October, 1994, the author makes a survey of some of the recent literature on psychoanalytic training. He points out that the three cornerstones of psychoanalytic training (personal analysis, supervision and theoretical/clinical seminars) are the same as in the early days of psychoanalysis. Attention is drawn to the dual aim of the training: the “production” of psychoanalytic practitioners and theorists. The author indicates positive and negative similarities between psychoanalytic institutes and religious institutions: the maintenance, development and transmission of systems of thoughts within a certain system of rules and regulations, and the risk of orthodoxy and dogmatism. He discusses the importance of the unconscious environment within psychoanalytic institutes and its influence on the candidates. Arguments are given for keeping the frequency of candidates' personal analyses high as a part of maintenance of high standard in the training. The author points to the importance of the curriculum seminars, which seems to him to be underestimated in discussions on psychoanalytic training. Finally, he discusses the risk of pathological group processes in psychoanalytic societies influencing the training, and underlines the importance of a creative “thinking climate” in the training, using to some extent Bion's concept of the oscillation between the paranoid-schizoid and the depressive position and Winnicott's idea of a creative intermediate area.

The Group Experienced as Mother: Early Psychic Structures in Analytic Groups

This paper explores the re-creation of early psychic structures in the beginning phase of slow-open analytic psychotherapy groups. Mervin Glasser's theory of the `core complex' is explored as a model for infantile perceptions of emotional abandonment and engulfment that reoccur in the early period of the group. Donald Winnicott's ideas of the `false self and the `facilitating environment' are used to describe the defensive personality responses to early emotional deprivation as seen in the group. Aspects of the peculiar vulnerability of the first six months of group life are examined. These include selection, holiday breaks and dropouts.

Literature and the relational self

Literature and the Relational Self is a tribute to the rich complexity of human nature--as poets, novelists, and relational models of contemporary psychoanalysis mutually attest. --Psychoanalytic Psychologist While psychoanalytic relational perspectives have had a major impact on the clinical world, their value for the field of literary study has yet to be fully recognized. This important book offers a broad overview of relational concepts and theories, and it examines their implications for understanding literary and aesthetic experience as it reviews feminist applications of relational-model theories, and considers D. W. Winnicott's influential ideas about creativity and symbolic play. The eight incisive essays in this volume apply these concepts to a close reading of various nineteenth and twentieth-century literary texts: an essay on Wordsworth, for instance, explores the poet's writing on the imagination in light of Winnicott's ideas about transitional phenomena, while an essay on Woolf and Lawrence compares identity issues in their work from the perspective of feminist object relations theories. The cultural influences that have led to the development of the relational paradigm in the sciences at this particular historical moment have also affected contemporary art and literature. Essays on John Updike, Toni Morrison, Ann Beattie, and Alice Hoffman examine self-other relational dynamics in their texts that reflect larger cultural patterns characteristic of our time. The author reviews feminist applications of relational-model theories and applies these models to works by William Wordsworth, Virginia Woolf, John Updike, Toni Morrison, and others.

The role of Milieu Therapy in the treatment of sexually abused children

Milieu Therapy is defined as therapy involving the total living environment provision for disturbed children, aimed at engaging the whole child in processes of psychological change. The author explores the ideas of Winnicott and Dockar-Drysdale to show the need of such therapy for unintegrated children. He goes on to suggest that among children suffering from sexual or severe emotional abuse there may be a number of such unintegrated children who require this particular therapeutic provision.

Theory, culture, and behavior: Object relations in context

The purpose of this article is to explore aspects of contemporary object relations theory in relation to sociocultural variations in family constellation, childrearing practices, and race and ethnicity. The theoretical framework for this exploration derives from Winnicott's concept of the “potential space” between person and environment as the location of cultural experience. The author argues that Winnicott's ideas provide a clinically useful way to think about transactions between the internal world of object relations and the external world of cultural diversity. The article concludes with some implications for social work practice.

Holding and Holding-On: Using Winnicott's Ideas in Group Psychotherapy with Twelve-to Thirteen-Year-Olds

Holding and Holding-On: Using Winnicott's Ideas in Group Psychotherapy with Twelve-to Thirteen-Year-Olds

Reflections on the theory and practice of supervision

SUMMARY Various facets and parameters of styles in supervision of psychoanalytic psychotherapy are discussed. The emerging theme favoured by the author is of a facilitatory style. This has links with many of Winnicott's ideas and particularly draws on the tradition and influence of Michael Balint.

Transition Processes: Healthy versus Pathological in Youth Groups

Relying largely on Winnicott's ideas about transitional phenomena and transitional objects, this paper reviews the ways in which group experience can be psychologically meaningful, even necessary, for many young people. A distinction is made between healthy and pathological, or antisocial uses of the group, and some of the possible dynamics determining involvement with antisocial groups are discussed. Study of ways in which groups can be organized that will assist youth to work through developmental issues in a pro-social fashion is strongly recommended.

Transitional space in psychotherapy and theatre.

Winnicott (1971 a) emphasized the importance of transitional space in play and psychotherapy, and hinted at its relevance in other areas of cultural experience. This paper compares and complements Winnicott's ideas with those of other writers and especially with the point of view of the theatre director. Both psychotherapy and theatre require a special frame or boundary; they both demand toleration of paradox and willing suspension of disbelief; and both involve repetition and re‐enactment in the presence of the other.