subject-object dualism

For Donald Winnicott, the Psyche is not inside us but between us

Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty

James Barnesis a psychotherapist, mental health advocate, and writer. He lives in Exeter in the UK.

Edited by Christian Jarrett

Originally a British paediatrician by trade, Donald Winnicott (1896-1971) became a central figure in mid-20th-century psychoanalysis. Outside of the cognitive and behavioural schools, his enduring influence on psychotherapeutic theory is arguably second only to that of Sigmund Freud. Though he didn’t explicitly dissent from the then prevailing Freudian orthodoxy, the theory we can abstract from his sometimes ambiguous work is radically at odds with the Freudian model and indeed the models employed by modern psychiatry and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This is key to the significance of his ideas, which extend far beyond psychotherapeutic theory and practice. In fact, my experience over recent years, working on the frontline of what many consider a mental health crisis, has convinced me that Winnicott’s perspective on the mind and its ailments is more important now than ever./.../