Winnicott

by Adam Phillips

The biography of Donald Winnicott, a child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who spent nearly all of his professional life at Paddington Green Children's Hospital, London. His work and writing about children has been increasingly regarded as an influential contribution to psychoanalysis.

Genres: Psychoanalysis, Psychology, Nonfiction, Biography, Philosophy

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Adam Phillips is a British psychotherapist and essayist.

Since 2003 he has been the general editor of the new Penguin Modern Classics translations of Sigmund Freud. He is also a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.

Phillips was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1954, the child of second-generation Polish Jews. He grew up as part of an extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins and describes his parents as "very consciously Jewish but not believing". As a child, his first interest was the study of tropical birds and it was not until adolescence that he developed an interest in literature. He went on to study English at St John's College, Oxford, graduating with a third class degree. His defining influences are literary – he was inspired to become a psychoanalyst after reading Carl Jung's autobiography and he has always believed psychoanalysis to be closer to poetry than medicine.

Adapted from Wikipedia.

Phillips is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books. He has been described by The Times as "the Martin Amis of British psychoanalysis" for his "brilliantly amusing and often profoundly unsettling" work; and by John Banville as "one of the finest prose stylists in the language, an Emerson of our time."

Reviews

[Paul Johnston]

This was such a good book I read it twice, starting again at the beginning as soon as I finished it the first time. Phillips give a clear and sympathetic account of Winnicott's ideas but is also ready to raise questions about them and to point to possible limitations. One of the aspects I found most striking was the contrast he makes between Klein's views and Winnicott's. Phillips suggests that the Kleinian account of an infant's experience is an account of an infant who did not have a good enough mother. Furthermore, there is a suggestion that what Klein puts forward as a normal health developmental process actually reflects some failures in development and possibly even some pathological adjustments to those failures. In any event, the book highlights very clearly the differences between the two accounts. The questions Phillips raises about Winnicott relate to the at best limited role he gives to the father and some sense of reticence about (or wish to distance oneself from) the issue of sex. It is certainly strange that a follower of Freud can seem to conjure up a world where sex is largely absent! So a positive account of Winnicott but certainly not uncritical.

[John Richardson]

Object Relations seems increasingly out of fashion, and I think we ignore its implications for developmental and clinical science at our own peril. This is an excellent and concise overview of Winnicott and his work, and summary of his ideas.

[Saeid soheili]

اوایل کتاب دیدم اوضاع متن خرابه، برگشتم ببینم ویراستارش کیه و دیدم کتاب ویراستار نداره! جلوتر رفتم و با این عبارت مواجه شدم: «وینیکات خود را به این صورت به یاد می‌آورد: «به یک معنی... تک فرزند با چندین مادر» که شامل دو خواهرش، پرستارش و مدیر خانه می‌شد». برام سوال شد «مدیر خانه» ترجمه‌ی چی بوده که دیدم تو پاورقی آورده "Governness" !(با همین املا حتی). خلاصه اگه به متن انگلیسی دسترسی دارید حتما همون رو بخونید تا زحمت نویسنده، زمان و پولتون حیف نشه.

[Eòghann]

'S mòr leam AP. Dòigh aige a tha tlachdmhòr, a' suathadh is a' saoilsinn, a' cur roimhe teud na h-argamaid. Beachdan fìor inntinneach aig DW: a' mhàthair a tha math gu leòr, cf. Freudian? trauma, Klein's psychotic baby. DW - cho fad's gum faigh leanabh cùram ann an àrainneachd a tha math gu leòr, fàsaidh iad gu nàdarra, gheibh iad an cothrom. Agus. Ma tha na psaidhceòlaichean mòr eil a' faicinn dùbailteachd na beatha ann an sìobhailteachd an aghaidh bunaid faidhaich, tha DW ga fhaicinn anns an dà rud a th' annainn uile: feumlachd a bhith ann an conaltradh le daoine eile, gun tuig iad sinn gu ìre, agus feumlachd pìos againn a chumail falaichte. Nach e seo am prìomh iomairt a th' aig ealan, sgrìobhadh, ceòl, ar briathran. Gum bi sinn so-thuigseach gu ìre mhòr, gun a h-uile càil a thoirt seachad.

[Shaun]

Mostly good. Lots of little spelling errors in this version. It gets too intellectual around the middle.

I can’t help but wonder how else the book could have presented to illustrate the ideas. A lot of textbooks do this well without having to go into a chronology of work.

[Jo]

Psycho-analyse wordt opeens heel toegankelijk en natuurlijk dankzij deze onorthodoxe therapeut.

[Kate O’Carroll]

from the AOC archives selected by the librarian himself!

[Lilach Lavy]

An excellent book for ones seeking to get a grasp on the work and ideas of the wonderful Winnicott.
I found it to be very readable, coherent, and engaging.

[Violeta]

it’s death drive not death instinct. beyond that good intro to winnicott and insight into how obsessed he was with motherhood

[Rachel]

Unlike F. Robert Rodman's lengthy and meticulous biography of Winnicott, Phillips simply tries to explicate the essence of Winnicott's delightfully idiosyncratic approach to psychoanalysis. Phillips' book is insightful, although less personal and psychologically compelling. A couple of quotes suggest the Winnicottian insights that Phillips values: "Where Freud and Klein had emphasized the role of disillusionment in human development, in which growing up was a process of mourning, for Winnicott there was a more primary sense in which development was a creative process of collaboration." Also, "Placing himself in the [psychoanalytic] tradition, Winnicott offers us a choice: sanity, a divided self, or the achievement of 'some measure of insanity'....[H]is measure of insanity is, I think, an inspiration."

[Ted Feder]

As a clinical psychologist, I have chosen to use Winnicott as my intellectual mentor: I believe that the mother/child relationship as it takes place "before words" is the most fundamental of all human relationships. The concepts of holding, good enough mother can be used not only in the office but in life. Adam Phillips" WINNICOTT with its 152 pages gives the reader, professional or lay, an overview of Winnicott, the influence of his ideas, the criticisms, the biography behind the concepts, in a flowing language...as all of Phillips's books, this one is also a wonderful contribution to the understanding of psychoanalysis and the unique position of Donald Winnicott.

[Diana]

A basic overview of D. W. Winnicott's theories and major papers. However, I often feel like the author is not just explaining, but wrestling with Wonnicott, sometimes trying to resolve a paradox or contradiction where, frankly, I don't see one. The author also seems to be pretty invested in Freudian orthodoxy, and so his discussion of Winnicott's moves away from orthodoxy seem to be more judgmental than descriptive and fail to fully explain the implications of the moves. But overall, I do feel like I understand Winnicott more than I did, and I look forward to reading his writings armed with a frame of reference to help me understand.

[Jack]

Adam Phillips, a paragon of lucid prose about psychological topics for the lay reader, here writes a slim volume aimed more at professionals who want a thorough grounding in the evolution of Winnicott's ideas and their contrast with those of his colleagues, especially Melanie Klein and Freud.

[Donald]

On Mark Epstein's advice...

[Sergio Gomes]

In this book, Adam Phillips present the ideas of Donald Winnicott , some aspect of your life and some ideas of his theories.

[Davis]

Even better on the second reading. A fantastic introduction to Winnicott as a thinker and person, and one well worth returning to.