The Piggle was published after Winnicott's death. This was likely his last child treatment case (Abram, 2008), and his only published child case with detailed process notes, marginal commentary, and parental observations of the child's responses. He treated this two-year four-month old girl for sixteen sessions over some two and a half years. Yet, The Piggle has been ambivalently reviewed and minimally studied, despite its value to bring us closer to explicit and implicit theory (Sandler, 1983).

This paper will show that Winnicott's technique and interpretations (including non-verbal) fall into three categories: 1. frequent Kleinian “deep” interpretations; 2. both rare (early) Anna Freudian interpretations and direct work with parents; and 3. Winnicottian interpretations that hew close to the manifest material and emphasize the environment-individual relationship and full-bodied play. Child “interpretations” include verbal content, prosody, gesture, facial expression, body movements and contact. Winnicott details the child's reactions to the different interpretations and the parents' accounts of her reactions. We close suggesting that Winnicott carried on dialogues, not only with the child, but also internal dialogues with former teachers (Klein/Riveiere and Freud/Strachey). We suggest that this is a manifestation of False versus True Selves.