214: Winnicott
Instructor(s)
Hans Agrawal M.D.
Mondays, 8:35 – 10:00 pm
No class: 5/25
Course Description
This course is an introduction to the important work of Donal Winnicott, including his concepts of the transitional object, authenticity, and the capacity to play.
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).
Educational Objectives
- Understand Winnicott’s unique ideas on early development, specifically how the interaction between mother and baby helps the organization of the mind.
- Describe the concepts of the transitional object and transitional space.
- Describe the concepts of the true and false self.
[Please note that the links to the reading material will be posted shortly.]
Week 1 April 27
Winnicott’s early, foundational insight: that there is no such thing as a baby, only an infant and mother pair. This week establishes the relational matrix from which all his later thinking flows
Winnicott, “Primitive Emotional Development” in Through Paediatrics to Psychoanalysis (1958)
Ogden, T,H. (2001), “Reading Winnicott.” The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 70(2), pp. 299-323.
Week 2 May 4
Winncott’s concept of authenticity and the true and false self. For Winnicott, psychological health depends not on the drives and their management alone, but on the quality of the environment facilitated by the caregiver
Winnicott, “Ego Distortion in Terms of True and False Self” in The Maturational Processes (1965)
Bollas, “The Self as Object” in The Shadow of the Object (1987)
Week 3 May 11
The transitional object and transitional space are Winnicott’s most widely celebrated concept. It bridges subjectivity and objectivity, offers a fresh understanding of the analytic frame, and opens psychoanalysis toward art and culture.
Winnicott, “Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena” in Through Pediatrics to Psychoanalysis (1958)
Ogden, T.H. (2021). “What alive means. On Winnicott’s ‘transitional objects and transitional phenomena’.” International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 102(5), pp. 837-856.
Week 4 May 18
Winnicott argues that a capacity to play is a key to development, creative living, and psychotherapy itself. His radical paper on the use of the object reframes aggression and continues to recognize the role of social reality.
Winnicott, “The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications” in Playing and Reality (1971)
Winnicott, “The Capacity to be Alone” in The Maturational Processes (1965)
Ogden, T.H. (2016). “Destruction reconceived. On Winnicott’s ‘The use of an object and relating through identifications’.” International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 97(5), pp. 1243-1262.
Week 5 June 1
In this week we read from Winnicott’s collaborator Masud Khan and interpreter Christopher Bollas.
Khan, M.M.R. “Secret as Potential Space” in Hidden Selves (1983)
Bollas, C. “The Transformational Object” in The Shadow of the Object (1987)