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In her introduction to this book, Swartz writes of the ‘creative joy’ (p. 1) of reading and rereading Winnicott, and of feeling indebted to him ‘for writing in ways that
allow reverie and provoke creativity’ (p. 1). As a fellow reader of Winnicott, I share this perspective. In my own reading of him, I have been struck by how he explored the nature of human aggression over his whole working and writing life, and in her book, Swartz draws on this theme in his work, making particular use of his distinction between ‘object relating’ and ‘object use’, and of the value he placed on the survival of the object (Winnicott, 1971). She also gives his concept of ruthlessness a central role in the book, extending it beyond his particular interest in what he called the ‘ruthlessness' (Winnicott, 1954, p. 265) of the baby, and applying it to adult life too.
Sally Swartz is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and academic living and working in South Africa and has previously written about the traumatic effects of colonialism. In this book, she develops an account of the importance of ruthlessness in human development, and also considers the part it has played in political protest in South Africa, where universities have been challenged to go through a process of decolonization (p. 61) since the end of Apartheid. The first three chapters focus on an exploration of ruthlessness in psychoanalytic theory and practice, considering ruthlessness both as ‘zestful demand’ (p. 3) and also as a defence against impingement and connection (p. 3). Then Chapters 4-8 broaden the discussion out to consider the place of ruthlessness in protest movements, with a particular focus on protests at South African universities.
Chapter 1 takes its title, ‘We want to be eaten’, directly from Winnicott (1954, p. 276) and opens Swartz's discussion of ruthlessness in the psychoanalytic setting. Following Winnicott, Swartz writes that for ‘the baby, ruthlessness received and survived paves the way for psychic alive