Donald Woods Winnicott: Biography and Psychoanalytic Legacy

The mother-child relationship is the first that the human being establishes and one of the most, if not the most important, for the development of the future man or woman. This bond, which begins to be forged already during pregnancy, will mark the pattern of interaction of the baby with the world and his understanding of reality as well as the social and affective bonding with the rest.

This type of relationship has been studied from different perspectives, such as psychoanalysis, being Donald Woods Winnicott one of the authors who focused his work on it. In this article we are going to do a brief review of the biography of this important author.

• Related article: "History of Psychology: main authors and theories"

Winnicott Biography: His Early Years

Donald Woods Winnicott was born in Plymouth in 1896. Son of Frederick Winnicott, merchant and politician who would come to obtain the consideration of Sir and who would transmit to his son the importance of not being tied to dogmas, and Elizabeth Martha Winnicott, he was the youngest and only male of three brothers.

Winnicott began studying at the age of 14 at the Leys College in Cambridge, to later enroll at the University of Cambridge, in the career of medicine. During World War I he was drafted and served as a surgeon. Once his service was over, she was able to finish his career, specializing in the branch of pediatrics. During said race already he begins to show interest in Freudian psychoanalysis.

In 1923 he married Alice Taylor, as well as going to work at Paddington Green Children's Hospital where he would work for around forty years. That same year would begin to be analyzed by James Strachey while his career as a pediatrician was consolidating.

Initiation of contact with Melanie Klein

Once the analysis with Strachey is finished and interested in continuing to understand and train in the psychoanalysis and especially in his bonding with children, Winnicott would receive the recommendation of contact with Melanie Klein.

He began to train with the author, to whom he suggested that she also analyze him. Klein refused and would in turn propose that Winnicott test her son Eric, under her supervision. The end result was that Eric's analysis was accepted but without Klein's supervision. In this way, a somewhat convulsed relationship would begin between Winnicott and Klein, who were torn between friendship and conflict. In addition, Winnicott began working with some patients.

Melanie Klein and Winnicott would diverge in several respects, such as the need or not to include parents in the analysis (while for Winnicott it was imperative for Klein not because of the belief that anxiety is due to the projection and introjection carried out by the child and this has nothing to do with the real figure of the parent) or the importance of the provision of stimulation Exterior.

Over time, a confrontation between the followers of Melanie Klein and those of Melanie Klein would emerge within the psychoanalytic school of the moment. Anna Freud, which had a different vision of psychoanalytic treatment, which although it came from ancient times, resurfaced at this time in the London Psychoanalytic Society. In this conflict Donald Woods Winnicott would not take a position for neither of the two, establishing himself as an independent with ideas that brought him closer to both positions.

World War II and psychoanalytic development

During World War II Winnicott studied the effects of parental separation on children, also participating in accommodation programs for minors in shelters due to the risk of bombing. He would also be interested in the changes of the minors when he returned to his relatives.

He later separated from his wife, in 1949. In 1951 he would remarry Clare Britton, who would be analyzed by Klein after his previous therapist emigrated to Canada. They would not be able to establish a good relationship, considering the first that the second was a bad analyst and the second that Clare was too aggressive to be analyzed.

Donald Woods Winnicott also worked with psychotic patients. This author's opposition to treatments such as electroshock is also known for both these and other types of patients.

During all that time his work evolved, incorporating different concepts based on Klein's theory, the more orthodox postulates of Anna Freud and pediatric practice. Her contribution was of great importance in the development of psychoanalysis.

Winnicott died in 1971 of cardiac arrest.

Contributions to psychoanalysis

Throughout his career, Winnicott would develop his own thought of great relevance in the psychoanalytic field, from of various concepts from both Kleinian influence and more orthodox positions within the work psychoanalytic.

His work focused on the mother-child dyadic relationship, considering the father a support for the maintenance of the family nucleus. The mother is a fundamental figure in the psychological development of the minor, being the emotional behavior of this the one that will determine if the baby can achieve her true self by serving as me assistant.

Another aspect that I would take into account is the mother's holding or sustaining behavior towards the baby, which allows him to acquire security and that he feels loved allowing him to integrate the representation of himself and of others.

It would establish that throughout development the human being goes through different phases in which there is at first an absolute dependence of the baby towards the parents in which she is not able to contain the anguish, for after six months to begin to be aware of the need for them and their care and to express their need, until finally progressing towards independence each time higher.

A concept of great importance that Winnicott created is that of a transitional object as one that allows to establish the less an onset of differentiation between the self and the non-self and that allows you to reduce anxiety in the absence of the mother to the endow them with narcissistic libido and object libido. Also important are transitional phenomena such as babbling, phenomena and actions that the child does with the same purpose and that allow progressive individuation and socialization.

Bibliographic references:

• Almendro, M.T.; Díaz, M. & Jiménez, G. (2012). Psychotherapies. CEDE PIR Preparation Manual, 06. CEDE: Madrid.

• Kahr, Brett (1999). Donald Woods Winnicott: Portrait and Biography. Madrid: Editorial Biblioteca Nueva.