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Dr. Goldman has achieved quite a tour de force in this eminently readable, accessible, intriguing book that actually accomplishes what its title suggests, a gathering of essays that have the works of D.W. Winnicott as its foundation, and which explores with creativity, and, yes, imagination, the complex topic of the psychoanalytic imagination.
This is a book worth savoring. It has its calm delights, its unexpected aspects, and its compelling excitement. We discover that the psychoanalytic imagination freely discovers the human.
The Table of Contents offers what the full title of the book offers, a sense of the connection between two aspects of the book, a very personal exploration of psychoanalytic process, the “beholder's share” of the engaged psychoanalyst, and an acknowledging tribute to the power and influence of Winnicott's contribution to psychoanalytic thought. The book is divided into two parts, Part I, “A beholder's share,” with five chapters, and Part II, “Winnicott's living legacy,” with four chapters. I was immediately struck by a comment Dr. Goldman makes in the Introduction: “One direction I've been heading is working out the difference between the novelty of fantasy and the originality of imagination” (p. 1). There is an inherent beauty in the balance of the words themselves, four words divided into two groups, two words, “novelty” and “fantasy,” contrasted with another two words, “originality” and “imagination,” and the balance of the ideas expressed in the sentence.
He parses the two ideas in a fresh, original way, describing generating novelty either as “creating versions of what is already known,” or allowing “what seems familiar to be seen afresh.” He tells us, “I think fantasy does the former and imagination the latter.” We are invited to contemplate what he contemplates, “how a sense of reality is evoked in the unpredictable space between imagination and adaptation” (p. 1). Yes, he allows us to discover the necessary relationships within the mind