Dr. Winnicott is something of a legend in his field, so I've wanted for some time to read him. Unfortunately, his books rarely turn up used, and they've tended to go in and out of print, so they have been pricey when available. That said, I just checked Amazon and found that most of his work is in print again, and available in trade paperback.

Now for the skewed nature of my three-star review. This is a book, I think, for professional practitioners. Winnicott was, I was surprised to see, basically a Freudian. Because I know some of the language and the concepts that language represents in Freud's work, I was able to understand some of this book. Still, this book is probably too abstruse and technical for a common reader like myself.

This is an inspiring collection of psychoanalytic writing that includes helpful elucidation through case material and an attempt by Winnicott to clarify and refine his ideas about transitional phenomenon. I also appreciated the constant reminder for analysts to allow for the analysand's creativity to emerge in the work and to not stifle this growth by the need to be useful or clever by making interpretations.

Winnicott's papers from the 60s and early 70s on transitional objects and phenomena, creativity, life, art, culture, and so on. I was hoping for Winnicott to go into greater depth on these things, but he stays at a somewhat superficial level--this isn't meant as a criticism, since his audience in these papers is still primarily other psychoanalysts, therapists and clinicians, despite dealing with topics that are more often addressed in philosophy. Still recommended, though if you're looking for an intensive, deep meditation and exploration of the themes mentioned above, you won't find it here. ( )

One of the great Winnicott gems. Many a great essay here.

D.W. Winnicott's distinctive contribution to our understanding of human development, based on extensive clinical work with babies and young children, is known and valued the world over. In Playing and Reality he is concerned with the springs of imaginative living and of cultural experience in every sense, with whatever determines an individual's capacity to live creatively and to find life worth living. The ideas expressed here extend the theme first put forward in his paper 'Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena' published in 1953. They relate to an area of experience that has for centuries been a recurrent preoccupation of philosophers and poets. This intermediate area, between internal and external reality, is intensely personal, since its existence depends, as does the use that can be made of it, on each individual's early life experiences. If children can utilize this realm to initiate their relationship with the world, first through transitional objects, and later through play and shared playing, then cultural life and enjoyment of the cultural heritage, will be open to them.