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Volume 2 of Winnicott's Collected Works consists of material written between 1939 and 1945. Included are eleven letters to medical journals (British Medical Journal and The Lancet), three personal letters (to Roger North, Kate Friedlander, and Marjorie Frianklin), forty-two published papers of varying length—some intended for professional audiences and others for parents. Winnicott addresses a multiplicity of questions related to child rearing, some reflecting dynamic and “reality” issues and others focused on the psychological impact of external interventions on the child. Among his concerns are the effects of wartime evacuations; delinquency and (more generally) aggression; play; nursing; the risks of medical/surgical procedures and policies; infant feeding; homelessness; twinship; corporal punishment; and breast feeding. Also included are three book reviews, a report on the Q Camp for delinquents at Hawkspur Green, and the transcript of an oral report to the Home Office committee on children's homes.
There is a striking difference in tone between Winnicott's published professional papers and many of the letters and short statements in this volume. Winnicott's papers, while at times declarative, typically have a transitional, playful quality. The implications of his ideas are rarely articulated at length; instead, readers are invited into a reflective space where what he says can be interpreted, revised, or ignored when it is unclear or jarring. There is room for us to play creatively with the clinical and theoretical meanings and implications of the positions he takes.