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This is a most timely and welcome book. In the dozen years which have passed since his death Winnicott's stock as a theoretician within both Psycho-analysis and child care has if anything increased. Up to the present there has been lacking any simple and systematic presentation of his developmental theory and clinical methodology, but now this volume has filled the gap.
“Systematic” is not perhaps, an epithet which the authors themselves, true to the spirit of Winnicott, would choose to describe their work. For Winnicott in his writings just as much as in his clinical work believed in the constructive value of spontaneous creative activity—the marriage of intellectual discipline and free association. Thus, though his thinking was orderly and directed it never gave the impression of being rehearsed; similarly his papers have a freshness and vigour about them which leave the reader feeling a participant in a journey of discovery, as though the author too whilst writing was all the while feeling his way to his eventual conclusion. Whilst this can be fruitful and exhilarating as a quality in a writer it presents a real challenge for anyone attempting to condense and distil his teachings. To the great credit of the authors of this volume they have succeeded in this difficult task. The book is well planned, being divided into three sections. The first gives a brief outline of the personal and professional background to his thinking, emphasising in this connection in particular the role played by his experience as a paediatric consultant in bringing to the fore the value