Book
Playing and Reality
Playing and Reality (1971), published shortly after Donald Winnicott's death, gathers and extends his late thinking on the area of experience that lies between inner psychic reality and the shared external world. It opens with a revised version of his 1951 paper on transitional objects and transitional phenomena: the blanket, toy or tune an infant adopts as its first 'not-me' possession, which belongs neither wholly to the inner world nor wholly to the outer one. Winnicott insists that the paradox be respected: no one should ask the child whether the object was found or created. The capacity to use such an object depends on a good-enough mother who first lets the infant feel it creates what it needs, sustaining an illusion of omnipotence, and then gradually disillusions it. As the transitional object loses its meaning, the intermediate area it opened spreads over the whole field of play, art, religion and culture. The central chapters treat playing as a universal activity, the basis of health and the medium of psychotherapy, which in this view takes place where the playing of patient and therapist overlap; where a patient cannot play, the first task is to make playing possible. Only in playing, Winnicott argues, can a person be creative and use the whole personality, and only in being creative can the self be found. He contrasts creative apperception, which makes life feel worth living, with a compliance that leaves a sense of futility, and contrasts dreaming, which links to life, with a dissociated fantasying that leads nowhere. He distinguishes a female element, tied to being, from a male element, tied to doing, in people of either sex. In 'The Use of an Object' he separates relating to an object, still under the subject's omnipotent control, from using it, which becomes possible only after the subject destroys it in fantasy and it survives, and is thus placed in a world of shared reality. Further chapters locate cultural experience in the potential space between baby and mother, describe the mother's face as the first mirror in which the infant sees itself, and discuss adolescence as a period whose immaturity should be met rather than cured.
Main ideas
- The transitional object, an infant's first 'not-me' possession, opens an intermediate area of experience that belongs neither to inner reality nor to the external world, and its paradox should be accepted rather than resolved.
- A good-enough mother first sustains the infant's illusion of creating what it finds and then disillusions it gradually, making the transitional area possible.
- The potential space between baby and mother is where play, and later cultural experience such as art and religion, takes place.
- Psychotherapy happens in the overlap of two areas of playing, the patient's and the therapist's; where the patient cannot play, the work is first to bring them to a state in which playing is possible.
- Only in playing can a person be creative and use the whole personality, and only through creativity is the self discovered.
- Creative apperception gives the feeling that life is worth living, whereas compliance with the world brings a sense of futility; dreaming connects with living, whereas dissociated fantasying absorbs energy and leads nowhere.
- In both sexes a female element, tied to being, can be distinguished from a male element, tied to doing, and being comes first.
- Object-relating differs from object-use: an object can be used only after the subject has destroyed it in fantasy and it has survived, which places it outside omnipotent control as part of shared reality.
- The mother's face is the infant's first mirror: in looking at her the baby sees itself, as she reflects back what she sees.
- Adolescent immaturity is a valuable phase that the adult world should meet and withstand rather than try to cure.
What it shows
- 1951
Donald Winnicott introduced Transitional object
Read to the British Psycho-Analytical Society in 1951 and published in 1953; a revised version opens Playing and Reality (1971).
- 1953
Donald Winnicott introduced Good-enough mother
Set out in the transitional objects paper, where the good-enough mother's graduated failure of adaptation leads the infant from illusion to disillusionment.
- 1967
Donald Winnicott introduced Potential space
Worked out in 'The Location of Cultural Experience' (1967) and the later chapters of Playing and Reality.
- 1969
Donald Winnicott introduced Use of an object
First presented in New York in 1968 and published in 1969, it was revised as a chapter of Playing and Reality.
Potential space derives from Transitional object
Potential space generalises the intermediate area first described through transitional objects into the space of play, creativity and cultural life.