Dethiville - Donald W. Winnicott

As part of the group who founded the Socit de psychanalyse freudienne in 1994, I volunteered to lead a seminar on the work of Donald W. Winnicott. However, in spite of my enthusiasm, I quickly put certain of his texts aside after reading the French translation of one of his books. The following summer I visited Maresfield Gardens, where I bought Through Paediatrics to Psycho-Analysis and The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. I later acquired all the others, in particular Psycho-Analytic Explorations, and I discovered a Winnicott I had not suspected.

When alls said and done, it is quite a common experience, shared by many. As always, a translation is already an interpretation and certain shades of meaning dont pass from one language to another. Something is always lost in translation.

I was able to brush up on my knowledge of Winnicott and complete it by referring to the work of those he does not always cite, but whose findings he calls on: Freud, of course, but also Sandor Ferenczi, Melanie Klein, Wilfred R. Bion, Ronald Fairbairn, and Phyllis Greenacre.

I gradually discovered an indefatigable researcher, an exacting mind, constantly ready to question his findings when new elements appeared during clinical studies. This was the work pattern of hiswhole life, not adding new elements to an established theory, but going beyond current theories and thus adhering closely to his own clinical experience. On reading his texts, we realise how much he modified his way of working over the years. He acknowledges it himself:

It appals me to think how much deep change I have prevented or delayed in patients in a certain classification category by my personal need to interpret. If only we can wait, the patient arrives at understanding creatively and with immense joy, and I now enjoy this joy more than I used to enjoy the sense of having been clever. I think I interpret mainly to let the person know the limits of my understanding. The principle is that it is the patient and only the patient who has the answers. (Winnicott, 1971a)

At the insistence of his wife, he had started on his autobiography just before his death. Even though he had only completed a few pages, he had already chosen the title: Not Less than Everything. An eloquent title, which makes us feel infinitely humble.

Consequently, when I attempted to write up the results developed during my seminars at the Socit de psychanalyse freudienne and numerous later conferences, the task was not easy. To try to fixor definethe salient points of such a changing, animated thought process ran the risk of draining it of everything it encompassed, the living proof of its creativity.

It is impossible to define Winnicotts concepts. We can only relate them. They have a life of their own, and often all we can do is follow them, making sure that we are not lost along the way.

This book is taking up the challenge; to try and relate Winnicott, at the same time updating his intuitions in the light of present-day discoveries.