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Through paediatrics to psycho-analysis, with an Introduction by M. Masud R. Khan, originally published in 1958 by Tavistock Publications under the title of ‘Collected papers: through paediatrics to psycho-analysis’. Now published as No. 100 of The International Psycho-Analytical Library. Pp. XL + 350. 1975. London. Hogarth Press. £5.
Masud Khan's forty-page Introduction to the republication of Winnicott's classic as No. 100 of The International Psycho-Analytical Library adds enhancement to this event. Covering the whole range of Winnicott's work, it enables Khan's experience and knowledge to be skilfully deployed in helping the reader to see its shape as a whole.
Although Winnicott has become almost a household name in London analytical circles, he is not so well-known abroad, and it is anyway uncertain how widely the central bases of his position are understood. Many have read parts or the whole of his work—with a sense of excitement—but are yet not quite at home with his idiosyncratic literary style. For instance, London trainees study the sections of Winnicott assigned to them—with enjoyment. Yet they sometimes find difficulty in grasping his precise meanings, particularly if their anxieties incline them to give primacy to thinking in their approach to a writer.
They are likely to be helped by Masud Khan's essay. Quoting Nietzsche's request to Carl Fuchs that he would, if he were to come round to write about him, ‘be sensible enough—to characterize me, to “describe”—but not to evaluate’, Khan proceeds to describe Winnicott as a person, as a presence in himself and his background, personal and cultural. The juxtapositioning of this with his clinical practice and theory demonstrates that we are dealing with a suitably coherent whole.
Winnicott came from a rather specialized grouping in English society. His parents were well-to-do Nonconformists. His father was knighted and a Lord Mayor of Plymouth. Khan describes him as a happy person who grew up, cher