Donald Winnicott

Donald Woods Winnicott ( born April 7, 1896 in Plymouth, † 25 or January 28, 1971 in London ) was an English pediatrician and psychoanalyst, and came through the mediation of his training analyst James Strachey under the influence of Melanie Klein of pediatrics to psychoanalysis without be described as Kleinian. He was instead - in addition to eg Michael Balint and Michael Foulkes - the so-called B- group, the group of independents and the Middle Group of the British Psychoanalytic Society, and he is ( therefore ) as one of the most important representatives of the British object relations theory, outside the Objaktbeziehungstheorie the Kleinian school.

Were received particularly wide his concepts of transitional object and the transitional space. Large became famous for his quip "There is no such thing as a baby", with which he wanted to express that you investigate adequately and treat may not be a baby without his mother, as are the two formed an inseparable dyad.

Winnicott is one of the most important pioneers of child psychotherapy. He was able to draw on over 60,000 cases he has handled in his forty -year work at Children's Hospital Paddington and in his own practice.

Theory

In the first months of a newborn is fused with his mother to a unit; the baby takes the mother as part of itself true. It goes from Winnicott not of an idealized mother who harms her child by deviations from ideal psychoanalytic theories, but introduces the concept of sufficiently good mother in the terminology of psychoanalysis. The " good enough mother " ( "good enough mother" ) is able to respond to the needs of the baby, at least so far that never feels completely abandoned the baby. Over time, the mother triggers this close connection, so that the child can learn that the mother is not part of it.

In this process the transition object plays an important role. This can for example be the tip of a blanket, the baby used to comfort themselves in the absence of the mother. It is for the child to both the mother and the real world.

If the mother is not sufficiently good, it comes to emotional deprivation, which means that the image of the mother dies in the baby. Deprivation is an important prerequisite for anti-social behavior, such as stealing from children. Due to this behavior, the child attempts to compensate for his lack. However, it is important for the coach to know that this anti-social behavior is a sign of hope of the child. A depriviertes child who has no hope, will behave adjusted and seemingly only when it again has hope, it will show anti-social behavior, so try to compensate for his lack.

German -language selection of works

  • Maturational processes and facilitating environment. Studies on the theory of emotional development, psycho social -Verlag, Giessen 2002, ISBN 3-89806-091-8 (Translation of: . Maturational The Processes and the Environment Faciliating Studies in the Theory of Emotional Development, International Universities Press, New York 1965. )
  • Human nature, Stuttgart: Klett - Cotta 1994, ISBN 3-608-91800-0
  • From play to the creativity, Stuttgart: Klett Cotta 2006 ( 11th Edition ), ISBN 978-3-608-95376-3
  • View in analytical practice, Stuttgart: Klett - Cotta 1996, ISBN 3-608-91787- X
  • Family and individual development (18 lectures ), Munich: Kindler 1978, ISBN 3-463-00732-0
  • Child, Family and Environment, Munich / Basel: Reinhardt 1992, ISBN 3-497-00944- X
  • Babies and their mothers, Stuttgart: Klett - Cotta, 1990, ISBN 3-608-95647-6
  • Aggression: failure of the environment and anti-social tendency, Stuttgart: Klett - Cotta 1992 3-608-95337- X
  • The spontaneous gesture. Selected Letters, ed. by F. Robert Rodman, Stuttgart: Klett - Cotta 1995, ISBN 3-608-95760- X
  • Transitional objects and transitional phenomena. A study of the first not to be associated with possession, first as a lecture in 1951, then engl. 1953; ger in: Psyche No. 23, 1969
  • From pediatrics to psychoanalysis, which first appeared in 1958 at the Tavistock Publishing, London; Psycho- Social - Verlag 2008, ISBN 3-898-06702-5
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