On: The comments of George Makari

Dear Editors,

Thank you for bringing Dr Makari's letter to my attention and allowing me the opportunity to respond. Dr Makari is, of course, perfectly correct in stating that a great proportion — in fact, I believe, by far the greater proportion — of Donald Winnicott's papers are held in the Oskar Diethelm Library in New York. The papers now held by the Wellcome Trust are those that Clare Winnicott retained for use by the Winnicott Publication Committee, which later became the Winnicott Trust, in order that publication of Winnicott's papers should be completed. It may be worth adding that there are also documents to do with Winnicott's periods of office in the British Psycho-Analytical Society now held in the BP-AS archives, while those from his work for the IPA are held in the IPA archive at Broomhills.

I regret that the previous notice may have been misleading, and am grateful for the opportunity to elucidate further. The Trust wishes to encourage the use of the existing archives, and the collection of any further material, and looks forward to future collaboration in the interests of Winnicott scholarship.