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Human Nature
The late British psychoanalyst offers his views on the Oedipus complex, psychosomatics, infantile sexuality, the unconscious, depression, transitional objects, the ego, and agression
189 pages, Hardcover
First published January 19, 1988
About the author
D.W. Winnicott
141 books459 followersDonald Woods Winnicott was an English pediatrician, psychiatrist, sociologist and psychoanalyst.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 21, 2023
No wonder this work is posthumous: Winnicott never could define human nature only with the psychoanalytic framework; he needed the historical, economical, political and sociological sciences to postulate something more concrete.
Instead of an interesting investigation we have a jungian and biological approach that divides human spirit in male and female with some elements repeating on the basis of soma.
While his research on children pathologies is outstanding, this books doesn’t develops his previous theories much further.
What we have here is an ideological view of how human is static and only reacts to environmental phenomena (something pretty tautological if you ask me).
Human nature as such doesn’t exist, what we have in each epoch is a manifestation of the human spirit thanks to the spirit of the mode of production that is ruling. And that isn’t a deterministic point view, let’s remember that Thomas Müntzer opposed the spirit of feudalism through revolutionary actions, doesn’t that tells us more about human “nature” than the soma?
The same goes with Marx, Lenin, Stalin, etc.
They could pinpoint the symptoms, the illness of the human spirit in the capitalist mode of production to rebel against them. Winnicott, Lacan, Freud, etc. do the same but forgetting (or doing so deliberately) the full social panorama, and end up reproducing the ideology that gnaws us.
If we want to speak of a human nature, then we have to by materialistic and dialectical means, or in other words, considering the full socioeconomic relations that dictate each historical moment.
Instead of an interesting investigation we have a jungian and biological approach that divides human spirit in male and female with some elements repeating on the basis of soma.
While his research on children pathologies is outstanding, this books doesn’t develops his previous theories much further.
What we have here is an ideological view of how human is static and only reacts to environmental phenomena (something pretty tautological if you ask me).
Human nature as such doesn’t exist, what we have in each epoch is a manifestation of the human spirit thanks to the spirit of the mode of production that is ruling. And that isn’t a deterministic point view, let’s remember that Thomas Müntzer opposed the spirit of feudalism through revolutionary actions, doesn’t that tells us more about human “nature” than the soma?
The same goes with Marx, Lenin, Stalin, etc.
They could pinpoint the symptoms, the illness of the human spirit in the capitalist mode of production to rebel against them. Winnicott, Lacan, Freud, etc. do the same but forgetting (or doing so deliberately) the full social panorama, and end up reproducing the ideology that gnaws us.
If we want to speak of a human nature, then we have to by materialistic and dialectical means, or in other words, considering the full socioeconomic relations that dictate each historical moment.
June 24, 2025
İnsan Doğası Winnicott'tan okuduğum ikinci kitap. İlkini yıllar evvel henüz Winnicott'tı tanımıyor ve psikanalizi sadece ismen biliyorken okumuştum. Küçük bir kız çocuğunun psikanalizle tedavisini anlattığı o kitap beni şaşkına çevirmişti. Çocuğun Winnicott'la oynadığı oyunlar esnasında sarf ettiği sözler beni korkutmuş -nasıl bu kadar şeyi bu yaşta bilebildiğine anlam verememiştim.-, Winnicott'ın yorumlarına şaşırmıştım. Dediğim gibi o zamanlar psikanaliz nedir bilmiyordum, Winnicott'ı tanımıyordum ama kitap beni çok etkilemişti. Keşke çocukken Winnicott gibi beni anlayan bir doktorum olsaydı diye geçirmiştim içimden. Winnicott'la esas tanışmam ise sevgili Nihan Kaya sayesinde oldu. Kendisinin yazdıklarından aşina olduğum Winnicott'ı okumaya cesaret edip İnsan Doğası'na başladım. Başta yazdıklarını çok genel ve birbirinden kopuk buldum ancak ne anlattığını anlamam uzun sürmedi. Jung'tan alışık olduğum gibi bir okuma bekliyordum belki de. Winnicott'ın eşi Claire İnsan Doğası'nın esas amacının "not alamamış öğrencilere ders notlarını sağlamak ve bunları insan doğasının bütün öğrenciler içi erişilebilir kılmak idi." der. Psikanalize yakın olmayanlar için terimler okumayı zorlaştırabilir ancak yazdıkları çok önemli.
Winnicott bebek doğduğunda bebek ve anne arasında bir yanılsama alanı oluştuğunu söyler. Anne bebeğe büyük bir hassiyetle uyum sağlayarak ona bebeğin ihtiyacı olan memeyi doğru yer ve zamanda sunar. Bebek de böylece memeyi kendi yarattığı yanılsamasına sahip olur. Yeterince iyi anne bu durumda tümgüçlü ve uyumludur. Bebek buna güvenir ve tümgüçlülüğünü kazanarak yanılsama alanından iyi bakım neticesinde elde ettiği gereçlerle yanılsama alanından kurtulur.
Winnicott insanın gelişiminde çevrenin önemine dikkat çeker. Oyunun onun için önemi büyüktür. (Oyun ve Gerçeklik kitabından bahsederken bunu daha ayrıntılı konuşuruz.)
Winnicott'ın dilimize çevrilmiş ancak basımı olmayan birkaç kitabı var. Umarım kısa zaman içinde yeniden basılırlar çünkü elimde olanlardan daha fazlasını okuma ihtiyacı duyuyorum.
Winnicott bebek doğduğunda bebek ve anne arasında bir yanılsama alanı oluştuğunu söyler. Anne bebeğe büyük bir hassiyetle uyum sağlayarak ona bebeğin ihtiyacı olan memeyi doğru yer ve zamanda sunar. Bebek de böylece memeyi kendi yarattığı yanılsamasına sahip olur. Yeterince iyi anne bu durumda tümgüçlü ve uyumludur. Bebek buna güvenir ve tümgüçlülüğünü kazanarak yanılsama alanından iyi bakım neticesinde elde ettiği gereçlerle yanılsama alanından kurtulur.
Winnicott insanın gelişiminde çevrenin önemine dikkat çeker. Oyunun onun için önemi büyüktür. (Oyun ve Gerçeklik kitabından bahsederken bunu daha ayrıntılı konuşuruz.)
Winnicott'ın dilimize çevrilmiş ancak basımı olmayan birkaç kitabı var. Umarım kısa zaman içinde yeniden basılırlar çünkü elimde olanlardan daha fazlasını okuma ihtiyacı duyuyorum.
August 10, 2022
Unfinished synopsis of Winnicott's psychoanalytic theories from the 1950s and 1960s. Intriguing but unconvincing.
I wanted to know more about the work of D. W. Winnicott after recently reading two books on therapy and psychology that lauded his contributions: "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (Gabor Mate)" and "The Zen of Therapy (Mark Epstein)"
Finding a good summary of his thinking was not an easy matter, as during Winnicott's professional career he published only short popular expositions and clinical papers. He had prepared materials for a synopsis of his approach in 1954, which he updated in 1967. However, the summary was unfinished at the time of his death in 1971 and the text was published with only minor amendments as Human Nature in 1988.
The first third of Human Nature seems to be a standard recap of Freudian psychoanalytical thinking, an approach which evidently has few followers today. The remaining two-thirds presents Winnicott's own thinking, with a specific focus on the ways in which the very young infant perceives his/her environment, notably centered on its mother, and the process by which the infant comes to understand its separate existence differentiated from its mother.
Winnicott's work laid the foundations for the British object relations theory of psychoanalysis. Frankly, Human Nature is not a good vehicle for understanding this approach nor its differences from other psychoanalytical frameworks. Indeed, I found the wikipedia page on object relations theory much more informative, viz:
"Object relations theory in psychoanalytic psychology is the process of developing a psyche in relation to others in the childhood environment. It designates theories or aspects of theories that are concerned with the exploration of relationships between real and external people as well as internal images and the relations found in them. It maintains that the infant's relationship with the mother primarily determines the formation of its personality in adult life. Particularly, the need for attachment is the bedrock of the development of the self or the psychic organization that creates the sense of identity.
"While object relations theory is based on psychodynamic theory, object relations theory places less emphasis on the role of biological drives in the formation of adult personality. The theory suggests that the way people relate to others and situations in their adult lives is shaped by family experiences during infancy. For example, an adult who experienced neglect or abuse in infancy would expect similar behavior from others who remind them of the neglectful or abusive parent from their past. These images of people and events turn into objects in the unconscious that the "self" carries into adulthood, and they are used by the unconscious to predict people's behavior in their social relationships and interactions.
"The first "object" in someone is usually an internalized image of one's mother. Internal objects are formed by the patterns in one's experience of being taken care of as a baby, which may or may not be accurate representations of the actual, external caretakers. Objects are usually internalized images of one's mother, father, or primary caregiver, although they could also consist of parts of a person such as an infant relating to the breast or things in one's inner world (one's internalized image of others). Later experiences can reshape these early patterns, but objects often continue to exert a strong influence throughout life. Objects are initially comprehended in the infant mind by their functions and are termed part objects. The breast that feeds the hungry infant is the "good breast", while a hungry infant that finds no breast is in relation to the "bad breast". With a "good enough" facilitating environment, part object functions eventually transform into a comprehension of whole objects. This corresponds with the ability to tolerate ambiguity, to see that both the "good" and the "bad" breast are a part of the same mother figure." (Source: Wikipedia)
Winnicott puts considerable emphasis on the importance of the birth process itself, skin contact between the baby and mother immediately following birth, and the "first feed" as a successful start to breast feeding for the subsequent healthy development of the infant psyche. This seems to put an impossible burden on the mother, with a failure of the mother and baby to come to terms in feeding being potentially "disastrous for the development of the infant" (p.103).
Moreover, Winnicott emphasizes that the infant needs to take the initiative in finding the nipple. "It is very easy to be deceived and to see a baby responding to skillful feeding, and to fail to notice that this infant who takes in an entirely passive way has never created the world, and has no capacity for external relationships, and has no future as an individual." (p.108)
Winnicott views the newborn baby as already aware and building memories, to the extent that handling immediately after birth can have a lasting impact. He posits that one of the first things that the baby will perceive is the change from weightlessness, floating in the womb, to the heaviness of gravity as a separate object after birth. Thus, "Clumsiness in regard to the management of this change from the pre-gravitational to gravitational era gives a basis to the dream of falling for ever, or of being lifted up to the infinite heights." (p.130)
Winnicott sees a value in the natural birth process itself for development of the infant psyche, and speculates that babies born by Caesarian section may differ from the norm in terms of patterns of anxiety. (p.144) Also, "an infant born under heavy narcosis as the result of the anaesthetizing of the mother can be said to have missed something. (p.148)
For one, I am skeptical as to the likelihood that normal variations in birthing and feeding practices can have substantial and durable effects on the development of the infant psyche, with life-long consequences. Though Winnicott's ideas about how the newborn infant experiences the world are fascinating, he offers no scientific evidence to back up his theories on the link to psyche development. But, turning again to Wikipedia, it seems that the efficacy of psychotherapy is unconnected to the validity of the interpretive framework adopted by the analyst:
"Numerous research studies have found that most all models of psychotherapy are equally helpful, the difference mainly being the quality of the individual therapist, not the theory the therapist subscribes to. Object Relations Theory attempts to explain this phenomenon via the theory of the Good Object. If a therapist can be patient and empathic, most clients improve their functioning in their world. The client carries with them a picture of the empathic therapist that helps them cope with the stressors of daily life, regardless of what theory of psychology they subscribe to." (Source: Wikipedia)
One last quote from Human Nature of particular interest:
In a community in which there is a sufficiently high proportion of mature individuals there is a state of affairs which provides the basis for what is called democracy. If the proportion of mature individuals is below a certain number, democracy is not something which can be a political fact since affairs will be swayed by the immature, that is to say, by those who by identification with the community lose their own individuality or by those who never achieve more than the attitude of the individual dependent on society."
I wanted to know more about the work of D. W. Winnicott after recently reading two books on therapy and psychology that lauded his contributions: "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (Gabor Mate)" and "The Zen of Therapy (Mark Epstein)"
Finding a good summary of his thinking was not an easy matter, as during Winnicott's professional career he published only short popular expositions and clinical papers. He had prepared materials for a synopsis of his approach in 1954, which he updated in 1967. However, the summary was unfinished at the time of his death in 1971 and the text was published with only minor amendments as Human Nature in 1988.
The first third of Human Nature seems to be a standard recap of Freudian psychoanalytical thinking, an approach which evidently has few followers today. The remaining two-thirds presents Winnicott's own thinking, with a specific focus on the ways in which the very young infant perceives his/her environment, notably centered on its mother, and the process by which the infant comes to understand its separate existence differentiated from its mother.
Winnicott's work laid the foundations for the British object relations theory of psychoanalysis. Frankly, Human Nature is not a good vehicle for understanding this approach nor its differences from other psychoanalytical frameworks. Indeed, I found the wikipedia page on object relations theory much more informative, viz:
"Object relations theory in psychoanalytic psychology is the process of developing a psyche in relation to others in the childhood environment. It designates theories or aspects of theories that are concerned with the exploration of relationships between real and external people as well as internal images and the relations found in them. It maintains that the infant's relationship with the mother primarily determines the formation of its personality in adult life. Particularly, the need for attachment is the bedrock of the development of the self or the psychic organization that creates the sense of identity.
"While object relations theory is based on psychodynamic theory, object relations theory places less emphasis on the role of biological drives in the formation of adult personality. The theory suggests that the way people relate to others and situations in their adult lives is shaped by family experiences during infancy. For example, an adult who experienced neglect or abuse in infancy would expect similar behavior from others who remind them of the neglectful or abusive parent from their past. These images of people and events turn into objects in the unconscious that the "self" carries into adulthood, and they are used by the unconscious to predict people's behavior in their social relationships and interactions.
"The first "object" in someone is usually an internalized image of one's mother. Internal objects are formed by the patterns in one's experience of being taken care of as a baby, which may or may not be accurate representations of the actual, external caretakers. Objects are usually internalized images of one's mother, father, or primary caregiver, although they could also consist of parts of a person such as an infant relating to the breast or things in one's inner world (one's internalized image of others). Later experiences can reshape these early patterns, but objects often continue to exert a strong influence throughout life. Objects are initially comprehended in the infant mind by their functions and are termed part objects. The breast that feeds the hungry infant is the "good breast", while a hungry infant that finds no breast is in relation to the "bad breast". With a "good enough" facilitating environment, part object functions eventually transform into a comprehension of whole objects. This corresponds with the ability to tolerate ambiguity, to see that both the "good" and the "bad" breast are a part of the same mother figure." (Source: Wikipedia)
Winnicott puts considerable emphasis on the importance of the birth process itself, skin contact between the baby and mother immediately following birth, and the "first feed" as a successful start to breast feeding for the subsequent healthy development of the infant psyche. This seems to put an impossible burden on the mother, with a failure of the mother and baby to come to terms in feeding being potentially "disastrous for the development of the infant" (p.103).
Moreover, Winnicott emphasizes that the infant needs to take the initiative in finding the nipple. "It is very easy to be deceived and to see a baby responding to skillful feeding, and to fail to notice that this infant who takes in an entirely passive way has never created the world, and has no capacity for external relationships, and has no future as an individual." (p.108)
Winnicott views the newborn baby as already aware and building memories, to the extent that handling immediately after birth can have a lasting impact. He posits that one of the first things that the baby will perceive is the change from weightlessness, floating in the womb, to the heaviness of gravity as a separate object after birth. Thus, "Clumsiness in regard to the management of this change from the pre-gravitational to gravitational era gives a basis to the dream of falling for ever, or of being lifted up to the infinite heights." (p.130)
Winnicott sees a value in the natural birth process itself for development of the infant psyche, and speculates that babies born by Caesarian section may differ from the norm in terms of patterns of anxiety. (p.144) Also, "an infant born under heavy narcosis as the result of the anaesthetizing of the mother can be said to have missed something. (p.148)
For one, I am skeptical as to the likelihood that normal variations in birthing and feeding practices can have substantial and durable effects on the development of the infant psyche, with life-long consequences. Though Winnicott's ideas about how the newborn infant experiences the world are fascinating, he offers no scientific evidence to back up his theories on the link to psyche development. But, turning again to Wikipedia, it seems that the efficacy of psychotherapy is unconnected to the validity of the interpretive framework adopted by the analyst:
"Numerous research studies have found that most all models of psychotherapy are equally helpful, the difference mainly being the quality of the individual therapist, not the theory the therapist subscribes to. Object Relations Theory attempts to explain this phenomenon via the theory of the Good Object. If a therapist can be patient and empathic, most clients improve their functioning in their world. The client carries with them a picture of the empathic therapist that helps them cope with the stressors of daily life, regardless of what theory of psychology they subscribe to." (Source: Wikipedia)
One last quote from Human Nature of particular interest:
In a community in which there is a sufficiently high proportion of mature individuals there is a state of affairs which provides the basis for what is called democracy. If the proportion of mature individuals is below a certain number, democracy is not something which can be a political fact since affairs will be swayed by the immature, that is to say, by those who by identification with the community lose their own individuality or by those who never achieve more than the attitude of the individual dependent on society."
November 22, 2019
az okunan bir kitap olduğundan birkaç not düşmek isterim.
birincisi Winnicott'tan da bir şey okuyayım düşüncesiyle okunacak bir kitap pek değil. Winnicott'un tamamlayamadığı notlar şeklinde derlenmiş ve dolayısıyla oturmuş bir izlek mevcut değil. kitapta daha çok didaktik üslup öne çıkıyor ve sanki yazılırken esere çok fazla misyon yüklenmekle kenara fırlatılmak arasında tuhaf bir yerde sıkışıp kalmış izlenimi bıraktı bende. çevirisi de yer yer çok iyi iş çıkartmış diye düşündürürken, bazı kısımlardaki anlaşılabilirlik sorunları kitabın okunabilirliğini aşağıya çekmiş.
birincisi Winnicott'tan da bir şey okuyayım düşüncesiyle okunacak bir kitap pek değil. Winnicott'un tamamlayamadığı notlar şeklinde derlenmiş ve dolayısıyla oturmuş bir izlek mevcut değil. kitapta daha çok didaktik üslup öne çıkıyor ve sanki yazılırken esere çok fazla misyon yüklenmekle kenara fırlatılmak arasında tuhaf bir yerde sıkışıp kalmış izlenimi bıraktı bende. çevirisi de yer yer çok iyi iş çıkartmış diye düşündürürken, bazı kısımlardaki anlaşılabilirlik sorunları kitabın okunabilirliğini aşağıya çekmiş.
August 15, 2016
"Probably the greatest suffering in the human world is the suffering of normal or healthy or mature persons."
A really nice summary of Winnicott's ideas, although it doesn't replace the essays and articles. Human nature is here a process of emotional growth, separation and connection of self and environment, and of course the important patterns and conflicts occur in early childhood as you would expect from a Freudian.
A really nice summary of Winnicott's ideas, although it doesn't replace the essays and articles. Human nature is here a process of emotional growth, separation and connection of self and environment, and of course the important patterns and conflicts occur in early childhood as you would expect from a Freudian.
September 23, 2017
A wonderful insight on every page - Winnicott, as much as anyone, seems to understand the ineluctable constraints and suffering of the basic human predicament. This ruminative, discursive text traces them to their instinctual core. The travails of the god-worm ... painful sometimes, disheartening, arduous but with their compensations.
November 22, 2022
Yüksek lisans, Çocuk ve Ergen Psikoterapisi için okuduğumuz bir kitap... Şüphesiz bu derste ufuk açıcı pek çok şey vardı, bu kitap da tüm bu sürece eşlik etmiş oldu.
January 1, 2023
Winnicott harika bir kuramcı ama çeviri sıkıntıları var
October 29, 2023
Possible a vital read for someone in the field of psychology but for a casual reader too technical and not really engaging. I was uninspired.
September 14, 2025
hade jag inte läst human nature, hade jag kanske aldrig hört talas om ”autistic cum fantasy”
April 22, 2016
Great book. Thanks to Winnicott I was able to understand how experiences from prenatal and then early childhood period can possibly influence human psychological development. Especially many little things, such as letting the child lie naked on mothers chest, so that it can observe her and his breathing rhytm to note the one from the end of the book. I think that the way he looks the treatment of newly borns was in his time very advanced and modern. In times when early separation of child from mother was advocated he was talking about the harm it may lead to. I admit that in the beginning it was a little bit difficult to read because Winnicott uses a lot of terms and concepts that are nowadays either obsolete or replaced with something else, but not in a manner that would make the book unreadable.
November 23, 2014
Il y a beaucoup d'idées qui m'ont passionnées (l'aspect gravitationnel de la naissance) et beaucoup d'autres qui m'ont interpellée dans un sens plus négatif (impossibilité de substitution a la mère biologique, pas de place pour un deuxième parent). Le livre est extrêmement dense et pas très facile a comprendre. Je pense être passée a côté de beaucoup de choses, même si ce livre est vraiment original et passionnant.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews