Winnicott's Children: Independent Psychoanalytic Approaches with Children and Adolescents, by Ann Horne and Monica Lanyado,  Routledge, London, 2013,  206pp.

This book is a collection, by the British Association of Psychotherapists, of edited papers written by experienced clinicians working with children and adolescents, whose own development was strongly influenced by the spirit of D. W. Winnicott's writings.

Winnicott never assumed he knew the reason for what is going on, but he tried to understand and engage with the patient in a creative dialogue. What counts is not the wisdom that is given, but what is made of it. He does not talk of an unconscious as known or not known, but of areas of conflict that are inherent in all of us. There can never be some solution to the problems of inherent emotional conflict, except the way that each individual has his or her unique method of coming to terms with what is difficult. It is important not to know. Winnicott writes that only when we are in the grip of the unknowing can we begin the process of understanding something that is again tentative and suggestive and barely knowable. Tentative suggestions are offered to the readers for their own transformation. The book does not offer answers or conscious conclusions.

Creativity is what counts. Winnicott writes: “Come at the world creatively, create the world; it is only what you can create that has meaning for you” (Foreward, p. xvi). In a similar vein, the authors suggest that we use this book wisely, meaning