212: Winnicott’s Basic Ideas
Instructors
Joel Whitebook, Ph.D.
March 18, 2024 – April 29, 2024
Wednesdays, 8:35 – 10:00 pm
No class: 4/22
Course Description
It has never been difficult for psychoanalysts to disagree with one another. But today it is safe to say that there is a broad consensus across many analytic schools about two points: that the preoedipal turn was the most important development in the field after Freud’s death, and that D. W. Winnicott is one of its most important theorists. In this course, we will therefore attempt to get a firm grasp not only of Winnicott’s major theoretical and clinical concepts, but also of their broader implications for the psychoanalytic study of culture. In addition to the crucial idea of the transitional object, these will include the facilitating environment, the self, play, aliveness, destructiveness, the therapeutic uses of regression, and others.
Educational Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:
1. explain the structural aspects of Winnicott’s theory.
2. analyze the relation of Winnicott’s theory to Freud’s, Klein’s and the Relationalists’.
Evaluation Method
Each student’s participation in class discussion and demonstration of understanding of the course objectives, readings and clinical material is assessed in a written evaluation by the instructor(s).
These articles are protected under relevant copyright regulations. They are available in the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute Electronic Reserve for your convenience, and for your personal use.
READINGS NOT YET CONFIRMED.
CLASS 1: March 18, 2024
BACKGROUND READING:
Abram, J. & Hjulmand, K. (1996). The Language of Winnicott: A Dictionary of Winnicott’s Use of Words, 160:1-450. (available on PEP)
REQUIRED READINGS
Winnicott, D. W. (1945). Primitive Emotional Development. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 26:137-143.
CLASS 2: March 25, 2024
REQUIRED READINGS
Winnicott, D. W. (1975). Chapter XXIV. Primary Maternal Preoccupation [1956]. Through Paediatrics to Psycho-Analysis. 100:300-305.
Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Mirror-role of Mother and Family in Child Development. Playing and Reality. 17:111-118
CLASS 3: April 1, 2024
REQUIRED READINGS
Winnicott, D. W. (1953). Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena—A Study of the First Not-Me Possession. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 34:89-97.
CLASS 4: April 8, 2024
REQUIRED READINGS
Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Creativity and its Origins. Playing and Reality. 17:65-85.
Winnicott, D. W. (1971). The Location of Cultural Experience. Playing and Reality. 17:95-103.
CLASS 5: April 15, 2024
REQUIRED READINGS
Winnicott, D. W. (1965). Ego Distortion in terms of True and False Self (1960). The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment: Studies in the Theory of Emotional Development, 64:140-152.
Winnicott, D. W. (1958). The Capacity to be Alone. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 39:416-420.
CLASS 6: April 29, 2024
REQUIRED READINGS
Winnicott, D. W. (1975). Chapter XVI. Aggression in Relation to Emotional Development [1950-5]. Through Paediatrics to Psycho-Analysis, 100:204-218.
Winnicott, D. W. (1971). The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications. Playing and Reality. 17:86-94.
SUPPLEMENTAL READING
Abram, J. (2021). On Winnicott’s concept of trauma. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 102:778-793.
Aguayo, J. (2018). D.W. Winnicott, Melanie Klein, and W.R. Bion: The Controversy Over the Nature of the External Object—Holding and Container/Contained (1941-1967). Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 87:767-807.
Whitebook, J. (2021). Misuse of Winnicott: On Axel Honneth’s appropriation of psychoanalysis. Constellations 28 (3):306-321.