Thinking About Children - Softcover

Winnicott, Donald W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1855751275 ISBN 13: 9781855751279

Publisher: Routledge, 1996

Synopsis

Thinking About Children collects thirty-one papers, of which twenty-eight have never previously been published. As might be expected, they range widely in tone and content from concise clinical observations to more general meditations including the landmark paper "Towards an objective study of human nature". Of particular interest are sections on autism and psychosomatics, where the author's thinking can be seen to foreshadow more recent developments, such as Frances Tustin's work on autism. Together with a substantial introduction by the editors, this book indispensable for those acquainted with the author's work, and an ideal introduction for those who have not yet encountered the extraordinary clarity and depth of his thought.

About this title

About the Author:

Donald Winnicott (1896-1971) was trained in paediatrics, a profession that he practiced to the end of his life, in particular at the Paddington Green Children's Hospital. He began analysis with James Strachey in 1923, became a member of the British Psycho-Analytical Society in 1935, and twice served as its President. He was also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and of the British Psychological Society.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Thirty-two mostly short, previously uncollected papers and talks by the pioneering British pediatrician and psychoanalyst, who died in 1971. Influenced by both Anna Freud and Melanie Klein, Winnicott is deeply interested in ``the whole field of infant and child development and of the distortions of development that are either psychogenic or else secondary to various kinds of physical disorder.'' A founder of the British object relations school of psychoanalysis, he deviated from Freud's emphasis on individual psychosexual development to focus on the ``infant-mother constellation.'' (There is little here on the influence of the father, or of siblings, on a child's development.) He urges understanding and tolerance for the full range of children's emotional needs, including the expression of aggressiveness and hatred. And in contrast to some of his psychoanalytical colleagues, Winnicott also strives to sympathize with (rather than merely blame) parents whose children are undergoing great emotional difficulties. For example, with a fine understanding that seems the product of his half-century of pediatric work, he notes in one of three pieces on autism that the ``parents of autistic children are puzzled, and lonely, and potentially loaded up with guilt feelings, and yet they have to go on caring for these children whatever the cause.'' Unfortunately, only about half of these essays should have been preserved in book form; many of the rest deal with the kind of technical, even esoteric, medical or psychological issues that will interest only a relatively few specialists. Others are dated (e.g., a book review from 1930), while still others have the overly chatty, somewhat run-on style of unedited talks. Ray Shepherd, Jennifer Johns, and Helen Taylor Robinson provide an informative and fluidly written, if somewhat cursory, introduction to Winnicott's thought. This collection by an unquestionably seminal thinker and practitioner should be selectively dipped into, rather than read straight through. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1855751275
• ISBN 13: 9781855751279
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 376