Customer Reviews

Winnicott

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Renowned, revered, kind-hearted D.W. Winnicott (1896-1971) was a pediatrician and then a child analyst whose contributions to theories of child development and psychology (mothering, love, language, attachment, dependency, anxiety and many other topics) were enormous. Phillips' book illuminates Winnicott's body of work and includes a chronology. The tone is respectful and insightful and Phillips' knack for skillful explanation and analysis is here. But he knows Winnicott's work -- and life -- by heart, and has written extensively on him elsewhere, and occasionally in this work he meshes the two -- biography and work -- so seamlessly that I wished for more. As an intro to Winnicott's ideas, this is first-rate.

I must admit that, until I picked up this book, I knew next to nothing about D W Winnicott, the pioneering pediatrician and psychoanalyst. But Adam Phillips (himself a child psychotherapist) corrects that gap in my knowledge with this affectionate--though not uncritical--exploration of a very significant figure in the history of child psychiatry and psychology.

Given that Winnicott had a preference for plain language, it is regrettable that Phillips' preface and fairly lengthy introduction are rather dry in style, which may put off more casual readers. Fortunately, his writing style is more easily manageable in the main body of the book.

As Winnicott's focus was always on child developmental issues, it is more than appropriate that Phillips considers not only the facts of Winnicott's upbringing, but also Winnicott's own view of it (as expressed in published comments).

One particular chapter especially grabbed my attention. This is the one which looks at Winnicott's observations about British children evacuated from their homes during World War II. Phillips examines how these unfortunate (and damaging) circumstances gave Winnicott the opportunity to learn a great deal about children's behavior. What fascinates me personally is the parallel between these wartime experiences (and discoveries) and my own interest in the situation of children removed from their homes and placed in psychiatric units in the UK (of the kind that existed--broadly speaking--from the 1950s through to the mid-'90s).

Also of special interest for me, given how little I knew of Winnicott previously, is how familiar many of his ideas appear. Many parents will be familiar with some of these concepts from child rearing self-help books and parenting "experts."

The author has succeeded in bringing his subject to life on the page, revealing a good deal about Winnicott's possible motivations, hopes and aims. Given how empathetic and caring a figure Winnicott appears to have been, it is perhaps disappointing that these aspects of his approach were less influential (arguably) in children's post-war mental health care than were his theoretical contributions.

slow to start but does an excellent job of explaining what Winnicott meant by "good enough" mothering. I appreciate the author's effort to point out that Winnicott ignored the concept of good-enough fathering, so now I just think "good-enough parenting."