In this article the author explores the use of imagination and clinical intuition in psychotherapy. She discusses the functions of imagination and how the capacity to be creative and for flexible imagining emerges within a secure attachment relationship in early childhood. Winnicott's ideas are important here. She also discusses what happens when trauma or relationship failings compromise the transitional space and uses case examples to illustrate some responses to this breakdown. To set the scene the author discusses changing views on illusion and imagination from Freud onwards to the present day when we are informed by recent findings in neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology. It is richly illustrated with theory and case material.
