xviii INTRODUCTION

Professor Gaddini's use of the idea of precursors, so that she is

able to include in the whole subject the very early examples of
fist-, finger-, and thumb-sucking and tongue-sucking, and all
the complications that surround the use of a dummy or a paci-
fier. She also brings in the maner of rocking, both the child's
rhythmical movement of the body and the rocking that
belongs to cradles and human holding. Hair-pulling is an allied
phenomenon.
Another attempt to work around the idea of the transitional
object comes from Joseph C. Solomon of San Francisco, whose
paper 'Fixed Idea as an Internalized Transitional Object' (1962)
1
introduced a new concept. I am not sure how far I am in agree-
ment with Dr Solomon, but the important thing is that with a TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND
theor}' of transitional phenomena at hand many old problems
can be looked at afresh. TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA
My own contribution here needs to be related to the fact that I
am not now in a position to make the direct clinical observations
of babies that have indeed been the main basis for everything I in this chapter I give the original hypothesis as formulated in
have built up into theor}'. I am still in touch, however. with 1951. and [then follow this up with tWO clinical examples.
descnptions that parents are able to give of their experiences
with their children if we know how to give them the chance to
remember in their own way and time. I am also in touch with I ORIGINAL HYPOTHESIS'
children's own references to their own significant objects and It is \-vell known that infants as soon as they are born tend to use
techniques. fist, fingers, thumbs in stimulation of the oral erotogenic zone,
in satisfaction of the instincts at that zone, and also in quiet
union. It is also well known that after a few months infants of
either sex become fond of playing with dolls, and that most
mothers allo\.\' their infants some special object and expect them
to become, as it were, addicted to such objects.

I Published in the lnlrrnutlonal Jolunal of Psycho-Analysis, Vol. 30+, Part 2 (1953): and
in D. W Winnicotl, CoJkmd Papm: Through Pcrdiotrici to Psycho-Malysis (1958a).
London: Tavistoclc PubliC:,llions.
 -
2 TRANSITIONAL OBIECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA TRAN S ITI aNAL 08j ECTS AN D TRAN 5 ITION A L PH EN OM E NA 3

There is a relationship between these two sets of phenomena introjeCled, between primary unawareness of indebtedness and
that are separated by a time interval, and a stud)' of the develop- the acknowledgement of indebtedness ('Say: "ta" ').
ment from (he earlier intO the later can be profitable, and can By this definition an infant's babbling and the '.vay in which
make use of important clinical material thaI bas been somewhat an older child goes over a reperror}' of songs and tunes while
neglected, preparing for sleep come within the intermedia~ area as tran~
sitional phenomena, along with the use made of pbjects that are
not pan of the infant's bo~}' yet are not full}' recognized as
The first possession
belonging to external reality. J
Those who happen to be in close touch with mothers' interests
and problems will be already aware of the very rich patterns
ordinarily displayed by babies in their use of the first 'not-me'
Inadequacy ofusual statement ofhuman nature
possession, These patterns, being displayed, can he subjected 10 It is generally acknowledged that a statement of human nature in
direct observation. terms of interpersonal relationships is not good enough even
There is a wide variation (0 be found in a sequence of events when the imaginative elaboration of function and the whole of
lhat starts with the newborn infant's fisl·in-mouth acti vities, and fantasy both conscious and unconscious, including the repressed
leads eventually on to an attachment to a teddy, a doll or soft toy, unconscious, are allowed for. There is another way of describing
or to a hard toy. persons that comes out of the researches of the past two decades.
It is clear that something is important here other than oral Of ever}' individual who has reached the stage of being a unit
excitement and satisfaction, although this may be the basis of with a limiting membrane and an outside and an imide, it can
everything else. Many other important things can be studied, and be said that there is an inntr ftlliity to thai individuaL an inner
they include: world lhat can be rich or poor and can be at peace or in a Slate of
war. This helps, bUI is it enough?
I. The nature of the object. My claim is that if there is a need for this double stalement,
2. The infant's capacity to recognize the object as 'not-me'. there is also need for a triple one: ~he lhird pan of the life of a
3. The place of the object - otltside, inside, at the border. human being, a pan that we cannot ignore. is an intermediate
4. The infant's capaCity to create, think up, devise. originate, area of exptriencing, to which inner reality and external life both
produce an object. contribute. It is an area lilaC is not challenged. because no claim
5. The initiation of an affectionate type of object~relationship. is made on its behalf except that it shall exist as a resting-place
for the individual engaged in the perpetua.1 human task of
I have introduced the terms 'transitional objects' and 'tran~ keeping inner and outer reality separate yet imerrelated.
sitional phenomena' for designation of the intermediate area of It is usual to refer to ·realit)'~testing·. and to make a clear
experience, between the thumb and the teddy bear, between the distinction bct\vcen apperLeption and perception. I am here stak·
oral erotism and the true object-relationship, between primary ing a claim for an intermediate state between a baby's inabilit)'
creative activity and projection of what has already been and his growing ability to recognize and accept reality. I am

- .
4 TRANSITIONAL OBJ ECTS AND TRANSITIONAL F'H ENOM ENA TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA 5

therefore studying the substance of illusion , that which is allowed In common experience one of the following occurs, compli-
to the infant, and which in adult life is inherem in art and cating an auto-erotic experience such as thumb~sucking:
religion, and yet becomes the hallmark of madness when an
adult putS too powerful a claim on the credulity of others, forcing (i) with the other hand the baby takes an external object, say
them to acknowledge a sharing of illusion that is not their own. a part of a sheet or blanket, into the mouth along with the
We can share a respect for illusory experience, and if we wish we may fingers; or
collect together and form a group on the basis of the similarity (ii) somehow or other the bit of cloth is held and sucked, or
of our illusory experiences. This is a natural root of grouping not actually sucked; the objects used naturally include
among human beings. napkins and (later) handkerchiefs, and this depends on
I hope it will be understood that I am not referring exactly (Q what is readily and reliably available; or
the little child's teddy bear or to the infant's first use of the fist (iii) the baby starts from early months to pluck wool and to
(thumb, fingers). I am not specifically studying the first object of collect it and to use it for the caressing part of the activity;
object.relationships. I am concerned with the first possession, less commonly, the wool is swallowed, even causing
and with the intermediate area between the subjective and that trouble; or
which is objectively perceived. (iv) mouthing occurs, accompanied by sounds of 'mum-
mum', babbling, anal noises, the first musical notes, and
so on.
Development ofa personal pattern
There is plenty of reference in psychoanalytic literature to the One may suppose that thinking, or fantasying, gets Hnked up
progress from 'hand to mouth' to 'hand to genital', but perhaps with these functional experiences.
less to further progress to the handling of truly 'not-me' objects. All these things I am calling transitional phenomena. Also, out of all
Sooner or later in an infant's development there comes a ten- this (if we study anyone infant) there may emerge some thing
dency on the part of the infant to weave other-than-me objects or some phenomenon perhaps a bundle of wool or the corner of
into the personal pattern. To some extent these objects stand for a blanket or eiderdown, or a word or rune, or a mannerism -
the breast, but it is not especially this paint that is under that becomeEitally important to the infant for use at the time of
discussion. going to steep, and is a _defence against anxiety, especially
In the case of some infants the thumb is placed in the mouth anxiety of depressive cype.]Perhaps some soft object or other
while fingers are made to caress the face by pronation and supi- type of object has been found and used by the infant, and this
nation movements of the forearm. The mouth is then active in then becomes what I am calling a tIllnsitional object. This object
relation to the thumb, but not in relation to the fingers. The goes on being important. The parents get to know its value and
fingers caressing lhe upper lip, or some other part, may be or carry it round when travelling. The mother lets it get dirty and
may become more important than the thumb engaging the even smelly, knowing that by washing it she introduces a break
mouth. Moreover, this caressing activity may be found alone, in continuity in the infant's experience, a break that may destroy
without the more direct thumb~mouth union. the meaning and value of the object to the infant.
 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA
7
6 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA

I suggest that the pattern of transitional phenomena begins to

Summary ofspecial qlJalities in the relationship -df~
show at about four to six to eight to twelve months. Purposely I 1. The infant assumes rights over the object. and we agree to ~
leave room for wide variations. this assumption. Nevertheless, some abrogation of omnipotence
Patterns set in infancy may persist into childhood, so that the is a feature from the start. /
original soft object continues to be absolutely necessary at bed- 2. The object is affectionately cuddled as well as excitedly loved
time or at time of loneliness or when a depressed mood and mutilated.
threatens. In health, however, there is a gradual extension of 3. It must never change, unless changed by the infant.
range of interest, and eventually the extended range is main- 4. It must survive instinctual loving, and also hating and, if it be
tained, even when depressive anxiety is near. A need for a spe- a feature, pure aggression.
cific object or a behaviour pattern that started at a very early date 5. Yet it must seem to the infant to give warmth, or to move, or
may reappear at a later age when deprivation threatens. to have texture, or to do something that seems to show it has
This first possession is used in conjuction with special tech- vitality or reality of its own.
niques derived from very early infancy, which can include or 6. It comes from without from our point of view, but not so
exist apart from the more direct auto-erotic activities. Gradually from the point of view of the baby. Neither does it come from
in the life of an infant teddies and dolls and hard toys are within; it is not a hallucination.
acqUired. Boys to some extent tend to go over to use hard 7. Its fate is to be gradually allowed to be decathected, so that in
objects, whereas girls tend to proceed right ahead to the acquisi- the course of years it becomes not so much forgotten as rele-
tion of a family. It is important to note, however, that then is no gated to limbo. By this I mean that in health the transitional
noticeable difference betwem boy and girl in their use of the original 'not-me' object does not 'go inside' nor does the feeling about it necessar-
possession, which I am calling the transitional object. ily undergo repression. It is not forgotten and it is not mourned.
As the infant starts to use organized sounds ('mum', 'ta', 'da') It loses meaning, and this is because the transitional phenomena
there may appear a 'word' for the rransitional object. The name have become diffused, have become spread out over the whole
given by the infant to these earliest objects is often significant, intermediate territory between 'inner psychic reality' and 'the
and it usually has a word used by the adults partly incorporated eXlernal world as perceived by twO persons in common', that is
in it. For instance, 'baa' may be the name, and the 'b' may have to say, over the whole cultural field.
come from the adult's use of the word 'baby' or 'bear'.
I should memion that r;omeJ;imes there is no transitional At this point my subject widens out into that of play, and of
object except the mother 'herseltjOr an infant may be so dis- artistic creativity and appreciation, and of religious feeling, and
turbed in emotional development that the transition state cannot of dreaming, and also of fetishism, lying and stealing, the origin
be enjoyed, or the sequence of objects used is broken. The and loss of affectionate feeling, drug addiction, the talisman of
sequence may nevertheless be maintained in a hidden way. obsessional rituals, etc.
8 TRIINSITtONAl OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA 9

Relationship ofthe transitional object to symbolism Two brothers: Contrast in early use ofpossessions
It is true that the piece of blanket (or whatever it is) is symbolical Distortion in tlse oftransitional object. X, now a healthy man, has
of some pan-object, such as the breast. Nevertheless, the point of had to fight his way towards maturity. The mother 'learned how
it is not its symbolic value so much as its actuality. Its not being to be a mother' in her management of X when he was an infant
the breast (or the mothery, although real, is as important as the and she was able to avoid certain mistakes with the other
fact that it stands for the breast (or mother). children because of what she learned with him. There were also
When symbolism is employed the infant is already dearly external reasons why she was anxious at the time of her rather
distinguishing between fantasy and fact, between inner objects lonely management of X when he was born. She took her job as
and external objects, between primary creativity and perception. a mother very seriously and she breast-fed X for seven months.
But the term transitional object, according to my suggestion, She feels that in his case this was too long and he was very
gives room for the process of becoming able to accept difference difficult to wean. He never sucked his thumb or his fingers and
and Similarity. I think there is use for a term for the root of when she weaned him 'he had nothing to faU back on'. He had
symbolism in time, a term that describes the infant's journey never had the bottle or a dummy or any other form offeeding.
from the purely subjective to objectivity; and it seems to me that He had a very strong and early attachment to her herself, as a
the transitional object (piece of blanket, etc.) is what we see of person, and it was her actual person that he needed.
this journey of progress towards experiendng. From twelve months he adopted a rabbit which he would
It would be possible to understand the tranSitional object cuddle, and his affectionate regard for the rabbit eventually
while not fully understanding the nature of symbolism. It seems transferred to real rabbits. This particular rabbit lasted till he
that symbolism can be properly studied only in the process of was five or six years old. It could be described as a comforter,
the growth of an individual and that it has at the very best a but it never had the true quality of a transitional object. It was
variable meaning. For instance, if we consider the wafer of the never, as a true transitional object would have been, more
Blessed Sacrament, which is symbolic of the body of Christ, r important than the mother, an almost inseparable part of the
think I am right in saying that for the Roman Catholic com. infant. In the case of this particular boy the kinds of anxiety
munity it is the body, and for the Protestant community it is a that were brought to a head by the weaning at seven months
subSlilUlt, a reminder, and is essentially not, in fact, actually the later produced asthma, and only gradually did he conquer
body itself Yet in both cases it is a symboL this. It was important for him that he found employment far
away from the home town. His attachment to his mother
is still very powerful, although he comes within the wide
Clinical description of a transitional object definition of the term 'normal', or 'healthy'. This man has not
For anyone in touch with parents and children. there is an infin- married.
ite quantity and variety of illustrative clinical material. The fol-
Typical tlse of transitional object. X's younger brother, Y, has
lowing illustrations are given merely to remind readers of simi-
developed in quite a straightforward way throughout. He now
lar material in their OVolTl experiences.
~

10 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS .... NO TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA

TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS A"NO TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA 11
has three healthy children arhis own. He was fed at the breast
for four months and then weaned without difficulty, Ysucked Thtlmb Transitional Object Type a/Child
his thumb in the early weeks and this again 'made weaning
easier for him than for his older brother'. Soon after weaning at X Boy 0 Mother
Rabbit Mother-fixated
five to six months he .adopted the end of the blanket where the (comforter)
stitching finished. He was pleased if a little bit ofthe wool stuck y Boy + 'Baa' Jersey (soother) Free
out at the corner and with this he would tickle his nose. This
Twins
(Gid
Boy
0
0
Dummy Donkey (friend)
'Ee' Ee (protective)
late maturity
latent
very early became his 'Baa'; he invented this word for it himself
psychopathic
as soon as he could use organized sounds. From the time Girl 'Baa'
0 Blanket Developing well
when he was about a year old he was able to substitute for the (reassurance)
end of the blanket a soft green jersey with a red tie. This was
not a 'comforter' as in the case of the depressive older brother,
Children
ofy
1 Girl + Thumb Thumb
(satisfaction)
Developing well

but a 'soother'. It was a sedative which always worked. This is a Boy + 'Mimis' Objects Developing well
(sorting)""
typical example of what r am calling a transitional object. When
Y was a little boy it was always certain that if anyone gave him • "'ddt<! nOlt' ThiJ W~l nOl duro but I han ltf, i' :os it wu. D. w.w.. 197 1,
his 'Baa' he would immediately suck it and lose anxiety, and in
fact he would go to sleep within a few minutes if the time for The. child's contribution
sleep were at all near. The thumb.sucking continued at the Information can often be obtained from a child in regard to
same time, lasting until he was three or four years old, and he transitional objects. For instance:
remembers thumb·sucking and a hard place on one thumb
which resulted from it. He is now interested (as a father) in the Angus (eleven years nine months) told me that his brother 'has
thumb.sucking of his children and their use of 'Saas'. tons of teddies and things' and 'before that he had little bears',
and he followed this up with a talk about his own history. He
said he never had teddies. There was a bell rope that hung
The story of seven ordinary children in this family brings Out
che follOwing points, arranged for comparison in the table down, a tag end of which he would go on hitting, and 50 go off
below. to sleep. Probably in the end it fell, and that was the end of it.
There was, however, something else. He was very shy about
this. It was a purple rabbit with red eyes. 'I wasn't fond of it. I
Value in history-taking used to throw it around. Jeremy has it now, I gave it to him. I
In consultation wich a parent it is often valuable to get informa~ gave it to Jeremy because it was naughty. It would fall off
cion about the early techniques and possessions of all the chil- the chest of drawers. It still visits me. I like it to visit me.' He
dren of che family. This stans the mother off on a comparison of surprised himself when he drew the purple rabbit.
her children one With another, and enables her to remember and
compare their characteristics at an early age. It will be noted that this eleven-year~old boy with the ordinary
good reality~sense of his age spoke as if lacking in reality-sense
12 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA
TRANSITIONAL 08) ECTS AN 0 TRAN SITIONAl PH ENOM ENA 13
when describing the transitional object's qualities and activities. sitional object is not an internal object (which is a mental concept) - k~
When I saw the mother later she expressed surprise that Angus it is a jSSeSSion. Yet it is not (for the infant) an external objectll
remembered the purple rabbit. She easily recognized it from the either.
coloured drawing.
The following complex statement has to be made. The infant
can employ a transitional object when the internal object is
Ready availability ofexamples alive and real and good enough (not tOO persecutory). But this
I deliberately refrain from giving more casermaterial here, par~ internal object depends for its qualities on the existence and
cicularlyas r wish to avoid giving the impression that what I am aliveness and behaviour of the external object. Failure of the
reporting is rare. In practically every case~his{Qry there is latter in some essential function indirectly leads to deadness or
something to be found that is interesting in the transitional to a persecutory quality of the internal object. 1 After a persis·
phenomena, or in their absence. tence of inadequacy of the external object the internal object fails
to have meaning to the infant, and then, and then only, does the
transitional object become meaningless too. The transitional
Theoretical study object may therefore stand for the 'external' breast, but indirectly,
There are certain comments that can be made on the basis of through standing for an 'internal' breast.
accepted psychoanalytic theory: The transitional object is never under magical control like the'"
internal object, nor is it outside control as the real mother is. /
I. The transitional object stands for the breast, or the object
of the first relationship.
2. Illusion-disiIlusionment
The transitional object antedates established reality~testing.
3. In relation to the transitional object the infant passes from In order to prepare the ground for my own positive contribution
(magical) omnipotent control to control by manipulation to this subject I must put into words some of the things that I
(involving muscle erotism and coordination pleasure). think are taken too easily for granted in many psychoanalytic
4. The tranSitional object may eventually develop into a fetish writings on infantile emotional development, although they may
object and so persist as a characteristic of the adult sexual be understood in practice.
life. (See Wulffs (1946) development of the theme.) There is no possibility whatever for an infant to proceed from
5. The tranSitional object may, because of anal erotic organ~ the pleasure principle to the reality principle or towards and
ization, stand for faeces (but it is not for this reason that it beyond primary identification (see Freud, 1923), unless there is
may become smelly and remain unwashed). a good~enough mOlher. The good~enough 'mother' (not neces~
sadly the infane's own mother) is one who makes active adapta.
Relationship to internal object (Klein) tion to the infant's needs, an active adaptation that gradually
lessens, according to the infant's growing ability to account for
It is interesting to compare the transilional object con~pt with
Melanie Klein's (1934) concept of the internal object. the tran- I Text modified here, though b;l.sW on the origin;l.l S!;l.tement.
 TRANSITiONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA
15
14 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA

failure of adaptation and to tolerate the results of frumation. JIIusion and the value ofillusion
Naturally, the infant's own mother is more likely to be good The mother, at the beginning, by an almost 100 per cent adapta-
enough than some other person, since thb active adaptation tion affords the infant the opportunity for the illusion that her
demands an easy and unresented preoccupation with the one breast is part of the infant. It is, as it were, under the baby's
infant: in fact, success "in infant care depends on the fact of magical control. The same can be said in terms of infant care in
devotion, not on cleverness or intellectual enlightenment. general, in the quiet times between excitements. Omnipotence is
The good-enough momer, as ( have stated, starts off with an nearly a fact of experience. The mother's eventual task is gradually
almost complete adaptation to her infant's needs, and as time to disillusion the infant, but she has no hope of success unless at
proceeds she adapts less and less completely, gradually, according first she has been able to give sufficient opportunity for illusion.
to the infant's growing ability to deal with her failure. In another language, the breast is created by the infant over
The infant's means of dealing with this maternal failure and over again out of the infant's capacity to love or (one can
include the follOWing: say) out of need. A subjective phenomenon develops in the baby,
which we call the mother's breasl. 1 The mother places the actual
1, The infant's experience, often repeated, that there is a breast JUSt there where the infant is ready to create, and at the
time-limit to frustration. At first, naturally. this time-limit right moment.
must be short. From birth, therefore, the human being is concerned with the
2. Growing sense of process. problem of the relationship between what is objectively per-
3. The beginnings of mental activity. ceived and what is subjectively conceived of, and in the solution
4. Employment of auto-erotic satisfactions. of this problem there is no health for the human being who has
5. Remembering, reliving, fantasying, dreaming; the inte- not been started off well enough by the mother. The intermediate
grating of past, present, and future. area 10 which I am referring is the area that is allowed to the infant betwWl
primary creativity and objective perception based on reality-testing. The tran-
If oil goes well the infant can actually come to gain from the sitional phenomena represent the early stages of the use of illu-
experience of frustration, since incomplete adaptation to need sion. without which there is no meaning for the human being in
makes objects real, that is to say hated as wen as loved. The the idea of a relationship with an object that is perceived by
consequence of this is that if aJl goes well the infant can be dis- others as external to that being.
turbed by a close adaptation to need that Is continued too long, The idea illustrated in Figure I is this: that at some theoretical
not allowed its natural decrease, since exact adaptation resembles point early in the development of every human individual an
magic and the object that behaves perfectly becomes no better
than a hallucination. Nevertheless, at !he start adaptation needs to JI include the whole technique of mothering. When It is said that the first
be almost exact, and unless this is so it is not possible for the object Is the breast. the word 'breut' is used, I believe, to sta..nd for the tech-
infant to begin to develop a capacity to experience a relationship nique of mothering as well as for the itctuitl flesh. It Is not Impossible for a
to external reality, or even to form a conception of external mOlher 10 be a. good-enough mother (In my way of putting it) with a bottle for
reality. the actual feeding.
16 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA TRANSITIONAL OBI ECTS AN 0 TRAN 5 ITI a NAL PH EN OM E NA
17

In Figure 2 a shape is given 1O the area of illusion, to illustrate

~
what I consider to be the main function of the transitional object
and of transitional phenomena. The transitional object and the
transitional phenomena start each human being off with what
will always be important for them. i.e. a neutral area of experi-
ence which will nO( be challenged. Of the {fansitiona] object it can be
TI\"'~
S{ljd that it is a malter of agreement berween us and the baby that we will never
ask the question: 'Did you conceive of this or was it presented to you from
without?' The important point is thot no decision on this point is expected. The
question is not to be formulated.
This problem. which undoubtedly concerns the human infant
in a hidden way at the beginning, gradually becomes an obvious
problem on account of the fact that the mother's main task (next
Figure T Figure 2
(0 providing opportunity for illusion) is disillusionmem. This is

preliminary to the task of weaning, and it also continues as one

of the tasks of parents and educators, In other words, this matter
infant in a certain setting provided by the mother is capable of of illusion is one that belongs inherently to human beings and that
conceiving of the idea of something that would meet the grow- no individual finally solves for himself or herself, although a
ing need that arises out of instinctual tension. The infant cannot theoretical understanding of it may provide a theoretical solution.
be said co know at first what is to be created. At this point in time If things go well. in this gradual disillusionment process, the
the mother presents herself In the ordinary way she gives her stage is set for the frustrations that we gather lOgether under the
breast and her potential feeding urge. The mother's adaptation word 'weaning'; but it should be remembered lhat when we
to the infant's needs, when good enough, gives the infant the talk about the phenomena (which Klein (1940) has specifically
illusion that there is an external reality that corresponds to the illuminated in her concept of the depressive pOSition) that clus-
infant's own capacity to create. In other words, there is an over- ter round weaning we are assuming the underlying process, the
lap between what the mother supplies and what the child might process by which opportunity for illusion and gradual dis-
conceive of To the observer, the child perceives what the mother illusionment is provided. If illusion-disillusionment has gone
actually presents, but this is not the whole truth. The infant astray the infant cannot get to so normal a thing as weaning.
perceives the breast only in so far as a breast could be created just nor [0 a reaction to weaning, and it is then absurd to refer to
there and then. There is no interchange between the mother weaning at all. The mere termination of breast~feeding is not a
and the infant. Psychologically the infant takes from a breastlhat weaning.
is part of me infant, and the motJler gives milk to an infant that is We can see the tremendous significance of weaning in the
part of herself. In psychology, the idea of interchange is based case of the normal child. When we witness the complex reaction
on an illusion in the psychologist. that is set going in a certain child by the weaning process, we
18 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS ANO TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA
TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA 19
know that this is able to take place in that child because the Summary
illusion.disHlusionment process is being carried through so well
that we can ignore it while discussing actual weaning. Anemion is drawn to the rich field for observation prOVided
by the earliest experiences of the healthy iofam as expressed
principally in the relationship (Q the first possession.
Dellelopment afthe theory ofiflusion-disiflusionment
This first possession is related backwards in time to auto·
It is assumed here that the task of reality-acceptance is never erotic phenomena and fist- and thumb-sucking, and also for-
completed, that no human being is free from the strain of relat. wards to the first soft animal or doll and to hard toys. It is related
ing inner and aUler reality, and that relief from this strain is both to the external object (mother's breast) and to internal
proVided by an intermediate area of experience (cf Riviere, objects (magically imrojected breast), bUl is distinct from each. _
1936) which is not challenged (arts, religion, etc.). This inter- Transitional objects and transitional phenomena belong to the
mediate area is in direct continuity with the play area of the realm of illusion which is at the basis of initiation of experience.
small child who is 'lost' in play. This early stage in development is made possible by the mother's
In infancy this intermediate area is necessary for the initiation special capacity for making adaptation to the needs of her infant,
of a relationship between the child and the world, and is made thus allowing the infant the illusion that what the infam creates
possible by good-enough mothering at the early critical phase.
Essential to all this is continuity (in time) of the external emo-
tional environment and of particular elements in the physical
really exIsts.
ThiS intermediate area of experience, unchallenged in respect
of its belonging to inner or external (shared)~lity, cOnStitUleS
I~
environment such as the tranSitional object or objects, the greater pan of the infant's experience, an~oughout life is
The transitional phenomena are allowable to the infant retained in the intense experiencing that belongs to the arts and
because of the parents' imuititive recognition of the strain to rel~ion and to imaginative liVing, and to creative scientific
inherent in objective perception, and we do not challenge the work) ~'

infant in regard to subjectivity or Objectivity JUSt here where An infant's transitional object ordinarily becomes gradually
there is the transitional object. decathected, especially as cultural interests develop.
Should an adult make claims on us for our acceptance of the What emerges from these considerations is the further idea
objectivity of his subjective phenomena we discern or diagnose that paradox accepted can have positive value. The resolution of
madness. If, however, the adult can manage to enjoy the personal paradox leads to a defence organization which in the adult one
imermcdiate area withoUl making claims, then we can acknowl. can encounter as true and false self organization (Winnicotl,
edge our own corresponding intermediate areas, and are 1960.).
pleased to find a degree of overlapping, that is to say common
experience between members of a group in art or religion or
philosophy. II AN APPLICATION OF THE THEORY
It is not the object, of course, that is transitional. The object
represents the infant's transition from a state of being merged
.....--
20 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS ANO TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA
TRANSITIONAL OBJECT$"AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA 21
with the mother to a state of being in relation to the mother as String4
something outside and separate. This is often referred to as the A boy aged seven years was brought to the Psychology
pOint at which the child grows up out of a narcissistic type of Department of the Paddington Green Children's Hospital by
object-relating. but I have refrained from using this language his mother and father in March 1955. The other two members
because J am not sure ~hat it is what I mean; also, it leaves oue the of the family also came: a girl aged ten, attending an ESN
idea of dependence, which is so essential at the earliest stages school, and a rather normal small girl aged four. The case was
before the child has become sure that anything can exist that is referred by the family doctor because of a series of symptoms
not part of the child.
indicating a character disorder in the boy. An intelligence test
gave the boyan IQ of 108. (For the purposes of this description
Psychopathology manifested in the area of aU details that are not immediately relevant to the main theme
transitional phenomena of this chapter are omitted.)

I have laid great stress on the normality of transitional phenom- I first saw the parents in a long interview in which they gave a
ena. Nevertheless. there is a psychopathology to be discerned in clear picture of the boy's development and of the distortions in
the course of the clinical examination of cases. As an example of his development. They left OUl one important detail, however,
the child's managemem of separation and loss I draw anemion which emerged in an interview with the boy.
to the way in which separation can affect transitional phenomena. It was not difficult to see that the mother was a depressive
As is well known, when the mother or some other person on person, and she reponed that she had been hospitalized on
whom the infant depends is absent, there is no immediate account of depression. From the parents' account I was able to
change owing to the fact that the infant has a memory or mental note that the mother cared for the boy until the sister was born
image of the mother, or what we call an internal representation when he was three years three months. This was the firsc separ-
of her, which remains alive for a certain length of time. If the ation ofimportance, the next being at three years eleven months,
mother is away over a period of time which is beyond a certain when the mother had an operation. When the boy was four
limit measured in minutes, hours, or days, then the memory or years nine months the mother went into a mental hospital for
the internal representation fades. As this takes effect, the tran- two months, and during this time he was well cared for by the
sitional phenomena become gradually meaningless and the mother's sister. By this time everyone looking after this boy
infant is unable to experience them. We may watch the object agreed that he was difficult. although showing very good fea-
becoming decathected. Just before loss we can sometimes see tures. He was liable to change suddenly and to frighten people
the exaggeration of the use of a transitional object as pan of denial by saying. for instance, that he would cut his mother's sister into
that there is a threat of its becoming meaningless. To illustrate little pieces. He developed many curious symptoms, such as a
this aspect of denial I shall give a short clinical example of a
boy's use of string.
~ Publish~d In Child Psychology dOd Psychlouy, Vol. I (1960); and In Winnlcott, The
MalUrolionol protfSS(S and tile Facllilallng EllI'lronmml (1965). london: Hogarth Press
and the Institute of Psycho-AnalysIs.
22 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA TRANSITIONAL OBlECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA
23

compulsion to lick things and people; he made compulsive wgether chairs and tables; and they might find a cushion, for
throat noises; often he refused to pass a motion and then made a instance, with a string joining it to the fireplace. They said that
mess. He was obviously anxious about his elder sister's mental the boy's preoccupation with string was gradually developing a
defect, but the distortion of his development appears to have new feature, one that had worried them instead of causing them
started before this fattor became significant. ordinary concern. He had recently tied a string round his sister's
After this interview with the parents I saw the boy in a per- neck (the sister whose birth prOVided the first separation of thiS
sonal interview. There were present two psychiatric social work- boy from his mother).
ers and two visitors. The boy did not immediately give an In this particular kind of interview I knew I had limited
abnormal impression and he qUickly entered into a sqUiggle opportunity for action: it would not be possible to see these
game with me. (In this squiggle game I make some kind of an parents or the boy more frequently than once in six months,
impulsive line-drawing and invite the child whom I am inter- since the family lived in the country. I therefore took action in
viewing to turn it into something, and then he makes a sqUiggle the follOWing way. I explained to the mother that this boy was
for me to rum into something in my rum.) dealing with a fear of separation, attempting to deny separation
The squiggle game in this particular case led to a curious by his use of string, as one would deny separation from a friend
result. The boy's laziness immediately became evident, and also by using the telephone. She was sceptical, but I told her that
nearly everything I did was translated by him into something should she come round to finding some sense in what I was
associated with string. Among his ten drawings there appeared saying I should like her to open up the matter with the boy at
the follOWing: some convenient time, letting him know what I had said, and
then developing the theme of separation according to the boy's
lasso response.
whip I heard no more from these people until they came to see me
crop about six months later. The mother did not report to me what
a yo-yo string she had done, but I asked her and she was able to tell me what
a suing in a knot had taken place soon after the visit to me. She had felt that what I
another crop had said was silly, but one evening she had opened the subject
another whip. with the boy and found him to be eager to talk about his relation
to her and his fear of a lack of contact with her. She went over all
After this interview with the boy I had a second one with the the separations she could think of with him with his help, and
parents, and asked them about the boy's preoccupation with she soon became convinced that what I had said was right,
string. They said that they were glad that I had brought up this because of his responses. Moreover, from the moment that she
subject, but they had not mentioned it because they were not had this conversation with him the string play ceased. There was
sure of its significance. They said that the boy had become no more joining of objects in the old way. She had had many
obsessed with everything to do with string, and in fact whenever other conversations with the boy about his feeling of separate-
they went into a room they were liable to find that he had joined ness from her, and she made the very significant comment that
- 24 TRANS ITiONAL 00] ECTS AN 0 TRANSITIONAL PH ENOM ENA TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA 25

she felt the most important separation to have been his loss of window. The mother rushed out severely shocked and certain
her when she was seriously depressed; it was not just her going that he had hanged himself.
away, she said, but her lack of contact with him because of her The follOWing additional detail might be of value in the
complete preoccupation with other matters, understanding of the case. Although this boy, who is now
At a later interview the mother told me that a year after she eleven, is developing along 'tough-guy' lines, he is very self-
had had her first talk with the boy there was a return to playing conscious and easily goes red in the neck. He has a number of
with string and to joining together objects in the house. She was teddy bears which to him are children. No one dares to say that
in fact due to go into hospital for an operation, and she said to they are toys. He is loyal to them, expends a great deal of affec-
him: 'I can see from your playing With string that you are wor- tion over them, and makes trousers for them, which involves
ried about my going away. but this time I shall only be away a careful sewing. His father says that he seems to get a sense of
few days, and r am having an operation which is not serious.' security from his family, which he mothers in this way. If vis-
After this conversation the new phase of playing with string itors come he quickly puts them all into his sister's bed, because
ceased. no one outside the family must know that he has this family.
I have kept in touch with this family and have helped with Along with this is a reluctance to defaecate, or a tendency to save
various details in the boy's schooling and other maners. up his faeces. It is not difficult co guess, therefore, that he has a
Recently, four years after the original interview, the father maternal identification based on his own insecurity in relation to
reported a new phase of string preoccupation. associated with a his mother. and that this could develop into homosexuality. In
fresh depression in the mother. This phase lasted two months; it the same way the preoccupation with string could develop into a
cleared up when the whole family Went on holiday, and when at perversion.
che same time there was an improvement in the home situation
(the father having found work after a period of unemployment).
Comment
Assodated with this was an improvement in the mother's state.
The father gave one further interesting detail relevant to the The follOWing comment seems to be appropriate.
subject under discussion. During this recent phase the boy had
acted Out sOmething with rope which the father felt to be sig- I. String can be looked upon as an extension of all other tech·
nificant, because it showed how intimately all these things were niques of communication. String joins. just as it also helps in the
connected with the mother's morbid anxiety. He came home wrapping up of objects and in the holding of unintegrated
one day and found the boy hanging upSide down on a rope. He material. In this respect string has a symbolic meaning for
was quite limp and acting very well as if dead. The father real- everyone; an exaggeration of the use of string can easily belong
ized that he must take no notice, and he hung around the garden to the beginnings of a sense of insecurity or the idea of a lack of
doing odd jobs for half an hour, after which the boy got bored communication. In this particular case it is possible to detecl
and stopped the game. This was a big test of the father's lack of abnormality creeping into the boy's use of string, and it is
anxiety. On the follOwing day, however, the boy did the same important to find a way of stating the cbange which migbt lead
thing from a tree which could easily be seen from the kitchen to its use becoming perverted.
26 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA 27

It would seem possible to arrive at such a statement if one Added note 1969
takes into consideration the fact that the function of the string is
changing from communication into a denial of stparotion. As a In the decade since this report was written I have come to see
denial of separation string becomes a thing in itself, something that this boy could not be cured of his illness. The tie-up with
that has dangerous properties and must needs be mastered. In the mother's depressive illness remained, so that he could nOl be
this case the mother seems to have been able to deal with the kept from running back to his home. Away, he could have had
boy's use of string just before it was too late, when the use of it personal treatment, but ill home personal treatment was
still contained hope. When hope is absent and string represents a impracticable. At home he retained the pattern that was already
denial of separation, then a much more complex state of affairs set at the time of the first interview.
has arisen - one that becomes difficult to cure, because of the In adolescence this boy developed new addictions, especially
secondary gains that arise out of the skill that develops whenever to drugs. and he could not leave home in order to receive educa-
an object has to be handled in order to be mastered. tion. All attempts to get him placed away from his mother failed
This case therefore is of special interest if it makes possible the because he regularly escaped and ran back home.
observation of the development of a perversion. He became an unsatisfactory adolescent, lying around and
apparently wasting his time and his intellectual potential
2. It is also possible to see from this material the use that can be (as noted above, he had an IQ of 108).
made of parents. When parents can be used they can work with The question is: would an investigatOr making a study of
great economy, especially if the fact is kept in mind that there this case of drug addiction pay proper respect to the psycho-
will never be enough psychotherapists to treat all those who are pathology manifested in the area of IransitionaI phenomena?
in need of treatment. Here was a good family that had been
through a difficult time because of the father's unemployment;
III CLINICAL MATERIAL: ASPECTS OF FANTAS
that had been able to take full responsibility for a backward girl in
spite of the tremendous drawbacks, socially and within the fam- In the later part of this book I shall explore some of the ideas thal
ily, that this entails; and that had survived the bad phases in the occur to me while I am engaged in clinical work and where I feel
mother's depressive illness, including one phase of hospitaliza- that the theory I have formed for my own benefit in regard to
tion. There must be a great deal of strength in such a family, and transitional phenomena affects what I see and hear and what I
it was on the basis of this assumption that the decision was made do.
to invite these parents to undertake the therapy of their own Here I shall give in detail some clinical material from an adult
child. In doing this they learned a great deal themselves, but they patient to show how the sense of loss itself can become a way of
did need to be informed about what they were dOing. They also integrating one's self-experience.
needed their success to be appreciated and the whole process to The material is of one session of a woman patient's analysis,
be verbalized. The fact that they have seen their boy through and I give it because it collects together various examples of the
an illness has given the parents confidence with regard to their great variety that characterizes the vast area between objectivity
ability to manage other difficulties that arise from time to time. and subjectivity.
28 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA TRANSITIONAL OBJE.cTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA 29
This patient, who has several children, and who has a high when she had started a new pregnancy; that is to say, when the
intelligence which she uses in her work, comes to treatment child was nearly two. She was told that the child had cried for
because of a wide range of symptomatology which is usually four hours without stopping. and when she came home it was
collected together under the word 'schizoid'. It is probable that no use for quite a long time for her to try to re·establish
those who have dealings with her do not recognize how ill she rapport.
feels, and certainly she is usually liked and is feft to have value. We were dealing with the fact that animals and small chil-
This particular session started with a dream which could be dren cannot be told what is happening. The cat could not
described as depressive. It contained straightforward and understand. Also. a baby under two years cannot be properly
revealing transference material with the analyst as an avari- informed about a new baby that is expected, although 'by
cious dominating woman. This leaves way for her hankering twenty months or so' it becomes increasingly possible to
after a former analyst who is very much a male figure for her. explain this in words that a baby can understand.
This is dream, and as dream could be used as material for When no understanding can be given, then when the mother
interpretation. The patient was pleased that she was dreaming is away to have a new baby she is dead from the point of view of
more. Along with this she was able to describe certain the child. This is what dead means.
enrichments in her actual living in the world. It is a matter of days or hours or minutes. Before the limit is
Every now and again she is overtaken by what might be reached the mother is still alive; after this limit has been over-
called fantasying. She is going on a train journey; there is an stepped she is dead. In between is a precious moment of anger,
accident. How will the children know what has happened to but this is quickly lost, or perhaps never experienced, always
her? How indeed will her analyst know? She might be scream- potential and carrying fear of violence.
ing, but her mother would not hear. From this she went on to From here we come to the two extremes, so different from
talk about her most awful experience in which she left a cat for each other: the death of the mother when she is present, and
a little while and she heard afterwards that the cat had been her death when she is not able to reappear and therefore to
crying for several hours. This is 'altogether too awful' and joins come alive again. This has to do with the time just before the
up with the very many separations she experienced throughout child has built up the ability to bring people alive in the inner
her childhood, separations that went beyond her capacity to psychic reality apart from the reassurance of seeing, feeling,
allow for, and were therefore traumatic, necessitating the smelling.
organization of new sets of defences. It can be said that this patient's childhood had been one big
Much of the material in this analysis has to do with coming exercise exactly in this area. She was evacuated because of the
to the negative side of relationships; that is to say, with the war when she was about eleven; she completely forgot her
gradual failure that has to be experienced by the child when the childhood and her parents, but all the time she steadily main·
parents are not available. The patient is extremely sensitive to tained the right not to call those who were caring for her 'uncle'
all this in regard to her own children and ascribes much of the and 'auntie', which was the usual technique. She managed
difficulty that she has with her first child to the fact that she left neller to call them anything the whole of those years, and this
thiS child for three days to go for a holiday with her husband was the negative of remembering her mother and father. It will
."....
30 TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA TRAN SITIONAl OB) ECTS AN 0 TRAN SITlONAL PH ENOM ENA 31

be understood that the pattern for all this was set up in her The patient then talked about her imagination and the limits
early childhood. of what she believed to be real. She started by saying: '! didn't
From this my patient reached the position, which again really believe that there was an angel standing by my bed; on
comes into the transference, that the only real thing is the gap; the other hand, I used to have an eagle chained to my wrist.'
that ;s to say, the death or the absence or the amnesia. In the This certainly did feel real to her and the accent was on the
course of the ses'sion she had a specific amnesia and this words 'chained to my wrist.' She also had a white horse whic.h
bothered her, and it turned out that the important communica- was as real as possible and she 'would ride it everywhere and
tion for me to get was that there could be a blotting out, and hitch it to a tree and all that sort of thing'. She would like really
that this blank could be the only fact and the only thing that was to own a white horse now so as to be able to deal with the
real. The amnesia is real, whereas what is forgotten has lost its reality of this white horse experience and make it real in
reality. another way. As she spoke I felt how easily these ideas could be
In connection with this the patient remembered that there is labelled hallucinatory except in the context of her age at the
a rug available in the consulting-room which she once put time and her exceptional experiences in regard to repeated loss
around herself and once used for a regressive episode during of otherwise good parents. She exclaimed: '1 suppose' want
an analytic session. At present she is not going over to fetch something that never goes away.' We formulated this by saying
this rug or using it. The reason is that the rug that is not there that the real thing is the thing that is not there. The chain is a
(because she does not go for it) is more real than the rug that denial of the eagle's absence, which is the positive element.
the analyst might bring, as he certainly had the idea to do. From here we got on to the symbols that fade. She claimed
Consideration of this brings her up against the absence of the that she had had some success in making her symbols real for
rug, or perhaps it would be better to say against the unreality of a long time in spite of the separations. We both came to some·
the rug in its symbolic meaning. thing here at the same time, which is that her very fine intellect
From here there was a development in terms of the idea of has been exploited, but at cost. She read from very early, and
symbols. The last of her former analysts 'will always be more read a great deal; she has done a great deal of thinking from the
important to me than my present analyst'. She added: 'You earliest times and she has always used her intellect to keep
may do me more good, but I like him better. This will be true things going and she has enjoyed this; but she was relieved (I
when I have completely forgotten him. The negative of him is thought) when I told her that with this use of the intellect there
more real than the positive of you.' These may not be exactly is all the time a fear of mental defect. From this she quickly
her words but it is what she was conveying to me in dear reached over to her interest in autistic children and her intim-
language of her own, and it was what she needed me to ate tie-up with a friend's schizophrenia, a condition that illus-
understand. trates the idea of mental defect in spite of good intellect. She
The subject of nostalgia comes into the picture: it belongs to has felt tremendously guilty about having a great pride in her
the precarious hold that a person may have on the inner repre- good intellect, which has always been a rather obvious feature.
sentation of a lost object. This subject reappears in the It was difficult for her to think that perhaps her friend may have
case· report that follows (see p. 49). had a good intellectual potential although in his case it would
r 32 TRANSITIONAL 08J ECTS AN 0 TRANSITIONAL PH ENOM ENA

be necessary to say that he had slipped over into the obverse,

which is mental retardation through mental illness.
She described various techniques for dealing with separa-
TRANSITIONAL OBIECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA

said: 'Oh, , see.' I thought perhaps that she was resenting my

masterly inactivity. I said: 'I am silent because t don't know
what to say.' She quickly said that this was all right. Really she
33

tion; for instance: a paper spider and pulling the legs off for was glad about the silence, and she would have preferred it if I
every day that her mother was away. Then she also had flashes, had said nothing at all. Perhaps as a silent analyst I might have
as she called them, and she would suddenly see, for instance, been joined up with the former analyst that she knows she will
her dog Toby, a toy: 'Oh there's Toby: There ;s a picture in the always be looking for. She will always expect him to come back

I
family album of herself with Toby, a toy, that she has forgotten and say 'Well done!' or something. This will be long after she
except in the flashes. This led on to a terrible incident in which has forgotten what he looks like. I was thinking that her mean-
her mother had said to her: 'But we "heard" you cry alt the time ing was: when he has become sunk in the general pool of
we were away.' They were four miles apart. She was two years subjectivity and joined up with what she thought she found
old at the time and she thought 'Could it possibly be that my when she had a mother and before she began to notice her
mother told me a lie?' She was not able to cope with this at the mother's deficiencies as a mother, that is to say, her absences.
time and she tried to deny what she really knew to be true, that
her mother had in fact lied. It was difficult to believe in her Conclusion
mother in this guise because everyone said: 'Your mother is so In this session we had roamed over the whole field between
marvellous.' subjectivity and objectivity, and we ended up with a bit of a
From this it seemed possible for us to reach to an idea which game. She was going on a railway journey to her holiday house
was rather new from my point of view. Here was the picture of a and she said: 'Well , think you had better come with me, per-
child and the child had transitional objects, and there were haps half-way.' She was talking about the way in which it mat-
transitional phenomena that were evident, and all of these were ters to her very much indeed that she is leaving me. This was
symbolical of something and were real for the child; but grad- only for a week, but there was a rehearsal here for the summer
ually, or perhaps frequently for a little while, she had to doubt holiday. It was also saying that after a little while, when she has
the reality ofthe thing that they were symbolizing. That is to say, if got away from me, it will not matter any longer. So, at a half-way
they were symbolical of her mother's devotion and reliability station, I get out and 'come back in the hot train', and she
they remained real in themselves but what they stood for was derided my maternal identification aspects by adding: 'And it
not real. The mother's devotion and reliability were unreal. will be very tiring, and there will be a lot of children and babies,
This seemed to be near the sort of thing that has haunted her and they will climb all over you, and they will probably be sick
all her life, losing animals, losing her own children, so that she all over you, and serve you right.'
formulated the sentence: 'Alii have got is what I have not got.' (It will be understood that there was no idea of my really
There is a desperate attempt here to turn the negative into a accompanying her.)
last-ditch defence against the end of everything. The negative is Just before she went she said. 'Do you know' believe when I
the only positive. When she got to this point she said to her went away at the time of evacuation lin the war]l could say that
analyst: 'And what will you do about it?' t was silent and she I went to see if my parents were there. I seem to have believed 1
....-

34 TRANSITIONAL 08JECTS AND TRANSITIONAl. PHENOMENA

would find them there.' (This implied that they were certainly
not to be found at home.) And the implication was that she
took a year or two to find the answer. The answer was that they
were not there, and that that was reality. She had already said to
me about the rug trat she did not use: 'You know, don't you,
that the rug might be very comfortable, but reality is more
important than comfort and no rug can therefore be more
important than a rug.'

This clinical fragment illustrates the value ofkeeping in mind the

distinctions that exist between phenomena in terms of their po_
2
sition in the area between external or shared realhy and the true
dream.
DREAMING, FANTASYING
AND LIVING

A case-history describing a
Primary Dissociation

G thiS chapter I make a fresh attempt [0 show the subtle

qualitative differences that exist between varieties of fantasyin&lI .
i
am looking particularly at what has been called fantasying ancfr
use once more the material of a session in a rreaunem where the
contrast between fantasying and dreaming was not only relevant
but. I would say, central. I ~ -

The case I am using is that of a woman of middle age who in

her analysis is gradually discovering the extent to which
fantasying or something of the nature of daydreaming has

1 For discussion of this theme from another angle see 'The Manic: Defence'

{193S} In Winnicott (1958a).