Introduction to Volume 8

The Introduction to Volume 8 elicits the key concepts Winnicott was developing in 1967-68, beginning in January 1967 with his talk on his own theories of development at the ‘52 Club, citing those who influenced him and those from whom he acquired ideas. The author proceeds to examine ‘The Use of an Object’, viewed by Claire Winnicott as the culmination of his thinking, a talk given at the NYPSI in November 1968. There is comment on Winnicott’s approach to observation and the scientific method, on culture and playing, and a fuller picture of friends and interests from the 1967 IPA conference. Failures in early development are explored but the main focus is the emergence of the self as real and the recognition of a real object that can be used (from ‘Mirror-role of mother and family’ to ‘The use of an object’) and the parallel between the early mother-infant relationship and the analyst-patient relationship. Thoughts on technique conclude the paper.

Letter to Joyce Coles

Winnicott writes from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York to his long-standing secretary Joyce Coles, with more hope of his continuing slow progress of recovery from a serious heart condition.

Letter to Karl and Sheila Britton

Winnicott’s letter to Karl and Sheila Britton from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York on his deteriorating heart condition.

Further Clinical Illustration of ‘The Use of an Object’

In a further clinical example in relation to the ‘Use of an Object’ paper, Winnicott describes and discusses his theme with reference to another patient whom he sees as exploiting a false self and living a life which is futile, deadly and potentially suicidal. He proposes that the patient needs to engage emotionally with her own destructiveness in relation to her objects (the analyst) and for him (the analyst) to survive and understand her attacks on him.

First Interview with Child May Start Resumption of Maturation

This short statement is a report of a lecture by Winnicott to the American Association of Psychiatric Clinics for Children on using the first therapeutic interview with children and how these interviews may enable maturation to re-start. He suggests that if the interview enables a development (halted for various reasons) to restart, the family relationships can take over the normal work for the child. The tendency to maturity, the facilitating environment, and the movement towards health in most children is suggested. Winnicott says that although psychoanalysis and a single psychotherapeutic interview are very different technical processes, they can be complementary in the various changes they may bring about.

Letter to L. Joseph Stone

Letter from Winnicott to Professor Stone offering him references to Winnicott’s various published accounts of the squiggle game in consultations with children.

Review: The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, Volume 22

Winnicott’s review of the twenty-second volume in the ‘inexorable’ series The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, in which Winnicott expresses his belief that these volumes, representing an intra-group loyalty to Anna Freud, while dogmatic and therefore theoretically consistent, have steadily moved through the volumes towards creative moments and spontaneity.

Interpretation in Psycho-Analysis

In this short piece, Winnicott writes of what concerns him as to the process of interpretation in the clinical setting. Verbal and nonverbal communications of all kinds from the patient are, in his view, available for the analyst to interpret and acknowledge. Correcting misunderstandings, responding at the appropriate or needed moment in time in relation to the given material, not intruding with an interpretation that might be intellectual but not affective for the patient is also commented on.

Physical and Emotional Disturbances in an Adolescent Girl

Winnicott reports the case of an adolescent girl and her general health despite physical and emotional disturbances in development, together with that of the same girl once she becomes a mother and then her own daughter’s difficulties. Sexuality and gender issues are discussed.

Communication Between Infant and Mother, and Mother and Infant, Compared and Contrasted

Winnicott summarises the conscious and unconscious to and fro between a mother and her baby who has as yet no separate conscious and unconscious. The baby, he writes, communicates creatively and in time becomes able to use what has been found so that the mother is found and used. Winnicott sums up the process in a poetic final statement. The preliminary notes for this lecture are also included.