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In his preface to Attachment, Play, and Authenticity, Steven Tuber acknowledges how over his 30 years of being a child therapist, the clinical acumen and humanity of D. W. Winnicott have been “something to aspire to, something to cherish, and something almost limitless in their usefulness” (p. ix). To that end, Tuber's captivating primer on Winnicott is a carefully crafted and engaging testament to this claim. In reading this book, I was equally struck by Tuber's evident skill as a teacher and his commitment to using Winnicott's work as any great teacher would: namely, to expand the minds of his students and readers.
Indeed, the book is derived from a series of lectures given by Tuber to clinical psychology graduate students of the City University of New York at City College and frequent reference is made to the responses and thought-provoking questions raised by his students as they read Winnicott. As I read this book, I found myself reminded of my own initial reactions to Winnicott when first exposed to his writings as a graduate student. Tuber managed to revoke much of my original delight and sense of captivation with Winnicott and for that I am grateful.
Tuber is clear that he is writing neither a biography nor a comprehensive review of Winnicott and his works, but rather he aims to play with key ideas of Winnicott and in so doing stir his readers to “find greater and deeper meaning to even the simplest of gestures, squiggles, and words, both in the consulting room and beyond” (p. ix). Tuber accomplishes his goal in part by beginning chapters with specific paradoxes suggested by Winnicott's writings and then discussing two or three of Winnicott's papers that have bearing on these paradoxes, all the while inviting the reader to creatively engage with the content of those papers.
After providing an enticing overview, he in turn discusses, chapter by chapter, the notion of the good-enough mother, private inner experience in others as being fundamentally unknowable, fa