Thinking about Children. : By D. W. Winnicott. Edited by Ray Shepherd et al. London: Karnac Books. 1996. Pp. 343 + xxxii.

Thinking about Children is a collection of thirty-one papers and talks by D. W. Winnicott, with an introduction by the editors, Ray Shepherd, Jennifer Johns and Helen Taylor Robinson. It is the latest of several books posthumously publishing Winnicott's papers.

All but three of the papers were previously unpublished. The three papers that have appeared were part of an early edition of The Child and the Outside World (1957) but were not included in the later revised editions of the book. The works span four decades; the earliest dates from 1931 and the last was delivered in 1970. The talks were originally prepared for various and diverse audiences, among whom were psychologists, doctors or medical students, social workers and trainees, or the lay public.

This book is not, primarily, about psychoanalytic theory or technique. It is about the application of psychoanalytic concepts and discoveries to disciplines other than psychoanalysis, to medicine and paediatrics, social work and to the professions dealing with children with special needs. The papers are the results of Winnicott's work with children, of his understanding