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The Child and the Outside World. Studies in Developing Relationships. London, Tavistock Publications, 1957. pp. viii + 190, 16s. New York, Basic Books.
The first of these two volumes consists mainly of a collection of broadcast talks addressed to mothers of young children. Winnicott is at his most original best in Part I, “The Ordinary Devoted Mother and her Baby”. The second volume contains fewer broadcasts and is addressed to those whose work is concerned with the care of children.
Whether he addresses himself to mothers, magistrates, or teachers, Winnicott has a feeling for his audience, an empathy which is quite outstanding. The books are thus extremely readable; the style is vivid and warm. A certain amount of repetition in such a collection is unavoidable. Both books have an index, which is rather superfluous since the chapters are short and the headings tell one clearly what to expect.
The main theme which Winnicott, backed by a wealth of observations and original thought, puts across with great skill is that the “ordinary good mother” is a natural, i.e. her care of her baby and young children does not depend on intelligence, education, reading, etc.; it comes to her simply by the fact of her motherhood. All she needs is support in the form of an “ordinary good home”, which includes recognition of the very important job she is doing. For Winnicott, I feel, her existence is an affirmation of faith, and it is this faith which makes his more popular writings straightforward as well as powerful. But this is not to say that there is a lack of subtlety: on his own admission the young mother, to whom the first book is addressed, is unlikely to read it; yet he has kept to the form of addressing her as it provides a discipline which enforces simple English and absence of psychological jargon. The purpose of giving moral support to the ordinary good mother and to “protect her from everyone and everything that gets between her baby and herself” certainly remains. But to wr