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Published to celebrate the centenary of his birth in 1896, Thinking About Children is a very readable and welcome addition to a collection of Winnicott's work. The reader is treated to an anthology of lectures, talks and articles written for a wide range of journals. Many are published here for the first time. The material presented follows the emotional growth of the child from birth to adolescence and considers the importance of various carers, as well as parents, who may have an influence on the child.
The book begins with Winnicott's general position in a section entitled ‘Observation, intuition and empathy’. Here, there is a moving account of him presenting to a scientific medical audience the value of intuition backed up by observation. The following sections headed ‘Early infant development’, ‘The family’, ‘Starting school’, ‘Case studies and observations’, concentrate mostly on the emotional development of children. One of the striking aspects of Winnicott's writing is the way he is able to communicate the complexity of factors which go to make up emotional illness, and his sensitivity to the continuum between what can be taken as normal and what may be considered pathological. Hence, ‘normality’ covers a wide spectrum. The second half of the book contains sections on ‘Adoption’, ‘Psychosomatic problems’, ‘Autism and schizophrenia’ and ‘Professional care of the growing child’. A glossary of terms is included, which makes some of the medical lectures clearer to the lay person. The book also contains a useful bibliography of Winnicott's works compiled by Harry Karnac.
This book provides additional papers on topics covered in other collections of Winnicott's writings. This collection spans many years and the articles vary widely in their format, therapeutic scope and content. Although written many years ago, the themes are still relevant today. His paper entitled ‘Cardiac neurosis in children’ is of undoubted historic interest. Although rheumatic heart disease i