Chapter 3 The Evolution of Winnicott's Theoretical Matrix: A Brief Outline1

Come at the world creatively, create the world; it is only what you create that has meaning for you.

Winnicott’s theoretical matrix evolved during the course of three chronological phases in which major theoretical discoveries occurred. Founded on the dialectics within and between the Freudian and Kleinian developments, Winnicott’s thought offers ‘a major advance in the psychoanalytic conception of the subject’ (Ogden 1992: 619).

In essence, from his early days as a psychoanalyst, Winnicott’s quest is to address the stage of human development that precedes object relations. One of the last pieces he writes offers a succinct conclusion to this focus:

I am proposing that there is a stage in the development of human beings that comes before objectivity and perceptibility. At the theoretical beginning a baby can be said to live in a subjective or conceptual world. The change from the primary state to one in which objective perception is possible is not only a matter of inherent or inherited growth process; it needs in addition an environmental

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minimum. It belongs to the whole vast theme of the individual travelling from dependence towards independence.

This conception–perception gap provides rich material for study. I postulate an essential paradox, one that we must accept and that is not for resolution. This paradox, which is central to the concept, needs to be allowed and allowed for over a period of time in the care of each baby.

And, if there is any one concept that can be placed at the core of Winnicott’s re-vision of psychoanalysis, it is this ‘essential paradox’ at the very beginning of life. Without the ‘environmental minimum’ the subject will never be able to live in the world of real objects. (Abram 2007: 352; Ogden 1986: 209; Parsons 2000; Roussillon 1991).

Increasingly, there is wide recognition that Winnicott’s thought offers a substantial advance in psychoanalytic theory and practice. This has certainly been assist