Response by Michael Eigen

What rich writings on Winnicott, so much to dip into and explore (Abram 2012; Bonaminio 2012; Blass 2012). I get the feeling that deep as we go,

there is more awaiting us. I am moved by a sense of “primary maternal preoccupation” as a thread of existence all life long. The older I get, the more important, rich and full this capacity becomes, related as it is to devotion, sincerity, and care. I think, too, of variations of this capacity in Meltzer's (1994) and Bion's (1994) concern with truth and life.

One thing one gets in psychoanalysis in general and Winnicott in his own special way is a sense of the interplay of psychic threads, always multiplicity. Bion speaks of sincerity as a “minimum necessary condition” (1994, p. 367) for “initiation” to a journey he values, while contrasting it with ways love becomes murderous, hate cruel and the journey artificial. Even truth can become artificial. An echo of true-false reverberates through Winnicott's and Bion's writings.

True can be false and false true, partly depending on how a capacity is used or functions in a particular context. Winnicott depicts psychosis as taking the unreal as real and the antisocial tendency as making the untrue true (denial of dependency).

Twinships populate psychoanalysis. Ego-id, symmetrical-asymmetrical, exhibitionism-voyeurism, sadism-masochism, true-false selves, omnipotence-helplessness (Freud, Bion), omnipotence-need (Winnicott), absolute and relative truth and love; the list continues. The capacities, tendencies and states alluded to enter varied relationships with one another. They can be antagonistic, fused, reversible, oscillating, symbiotic, co-nourishing, connected and distinguished in a variety of ways. Freud and Bion speak of basic binaries indistinguishable at an early point of origin. Bion elaborates this indistinguishable early point of origin as O, unknown, infinite, ultimate reality: in psychoanalysis, emotional reality. In one of Bion's diagrams O gives rise to “root” which