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Our review of The Collected Works of D. W. Winnicott: Volume 1 1911-1938 coincided with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was always going to be a special journey back to the London of a hundred years ago, which was also the time of the last global pandemic. Winnicott's gift with language, his depth of insight, and excitement about the new phenomenon of psychoanalysis transported us out of our current frightening and socially distanced existence. From our 2020 perspective, after nine weeks (and running) of quarantine, there is a sense that we were visiting with Donald Winnicott as he embarked on his career as a pediatrician and psychoanalyst during and in the aftermath of the deadly Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. While there are many captivating ideas in this volume, we choose to highlight Winnicott's early contributions from his unique blending of his career as pediatrician and psychoanalyst and his foreshadowing of the developmental psychology to come.
Winnicott contributed enormously to the development of the medical discipline of pediatrics, and works in this area the make up the bulk of Volume 1. Winnicott's writing on pediatric practice ranges from issues such as the importance of history taking and how to conduct physical examinations to advice on treating specific conditions such as encephalitis, rheumatism, chorea, poliomyelitis, and facial nerve paralysis. Interwoven with his medical commentary we find Winnicott's unique insights on issues such as fidgetiness, the impact of the birth of a sibling, anxiety, and the motivating force of the unconscious.