In the preface by Clare Winnicott we are told that Winnicott started writing this book in 1954, at which time he had been lecturing for some eighteen years on human growth and development to experienced teachers of young children and to university social work students. With this book, we are told, he intended 'to supply the notes that the students could not take, and to make them available for all students of human nature' (p. ix). These origins are more evident in the early chapters, some of which are rather