This article provides a critique of Martha Nussbaum’s use of Donald Winnicott’s psychoanalysis in the field of political theory. In particular, it shows that Nussbaum omits specific elements in Winnicott’s thinking that may be described as “vitalist”. Nussbaum uses Winnicott’s ideas to justify a teleological view of human maturity which can hardly be harmonised with some of his seminal views of human subjectivity. The paper argues that, despite being true to Winnicott’s theory in many ways, Nussbuam commits a decisive interpretive shift which involves subordinating the Winnicottian “life force” under regulative norms of the liberal political order.