Playing and Reality
Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (20 Jan 2005) (first published 1971)
ISBN-10: 0415345464
ISBN-13: 978-0415345460
Amazon/back cover blurb
What are the origins of creativity and how can we develop it – whether within ourselves or in others? Not only does Playing and Reality address these questions, it also tackles many more that surround the fundamental issue of the individual self and its relationship with the outside world. In this landmark book of twentieth-century psychology, Winnicott shows the reader how, through the attentive nurturing of creativity from the earliest years, every individual has the opportunity to enjoy a rich and rewarding cultural life. Today, as the ‘hothousing’ and testing of children begins at an ever-younger age, Winnicott’s classic text is a more urgent and topical read than ever before. First published: 1971.
Winnicott is wonderful to read. Well, that’s my opinion as you will have seen from my previous reviews. He’s not accessible, he’s not concise but he is passionate about his subject matter and it shines through.
When reading this, it will be helpful if you have a general understanding of psychoanalysis and understand some of the Freudian jargon and theorising that most of the work of this time period was still based upon.
This book is a compilation of a number of essays, speeches etc and therefore is not really designed to be a cohesive narrative however it does contain some of the most important of Winnicott’s theories.
My personal interest is piqued by the notion of transitional objects and object relations. Once one has disposed of the psychoanalytic jargon there is so much here that makes sense and so much that has been challenged and developed by subsequent schools (attachment, relational etc).
The overriding focus of this collection however is the nature of play, creativity and so on and how this contributes to a child’s (or indeed an adult’s) development. The idea of the relational space between child and caregiver and the importance of everything that goes on in the “space between” the two is fascinating. There is also plenty of material such as case studies which examine the usual “when this process goes wrong” type stuff you’d expect with treatment approaches, psychoanalytic interventions and so forth.
Conclusion: This one is fascinating on it’s own, but even moreso when considered in relation to the work of others in this field and the development of relational models. Reading about transitional objects and imagining the concepts being relayed to an audience for the first time gives me chills.
