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This is a transcript by Peter Rudnytsky of a taped interview, recorded in June 1983 and deposited by Michael Neve in the Archives of Psychiatry, New York Hospital—Cornell Medical Center. It has appeared as an appendix to Peter L. Rudnytsky's forthcoming book, The Psychoanalytic Vocation: Rank, Winnicott, and the Legacy of Freud, published by Yale University Press, and is printed here by his permission.
Michael Neve (MN): Was he a Plymouth Brother?
Clare Winnicott (CW): Oh, no, no. Heavens, no.
MN: That's what Khan told me.
CW: What? Everybody…. [Both laugh]
MN: But he did. He swore he was a Plymouth Brother.
CW: No, absolutely not. He couldn't possibly have been. No, they were Methodists. His father was a Methodist. His mother was Anglican church, but when she married the father they both settled in the Methodist church, which was ten minutes' walk away from where they lived. And they were very much leading lights in the church. The father was treasurer of it; he sang in the choir. And the whole family went to church every Sunday morning.
And I think it wasn't in the least a repressive religion, in their home.
MN: Interesting. That seems unusual.
CW: Unusual. I think the Methodists are a bit difficult — different. [MN laughs] Different.