A Discussion of Stephen Seligman’s Holding and Containing: “The Metaphor of the Baby” in Winnicott, Bion, and Klein

Stephen Seligman gives an understanding of infants and the infantile based on Winnicott which is close to Bion’s in its emphasis on the relationship with the actual carer. However Bion’s and Klein’s emphasis on the ubiquity of frustration, with tension and early anxieties in early relationships underlying his theory of containment and underpinned by a “dual instinct” (or “drive”) theory – the conflict of life and death drives, he finds unsatisfactory. He concedes however it is a brilliant account of what happens when things go wrong, although he claims most infant development is not of this kind and is “good enough.” Denis Flynn’s discussion looks at Bion’s description of internal processing in a growing mind as a feature in the developing picture of any child even when there is no overt deprivation or trauma. He sees Bion’s containment like Winnicott’s original “use of an object” as describing the quality of emotional connection, and it is in no way “solipsistic” or “narcissistic.” He notes too how a wider understanding of Bion’s “theory of thinking” includes “positive realizations” not just “negative realizations,” and it is built upon steady emotional and symbolic growth in a progressive natural movement, similar to infant development as Stephen and Winnicott describe it.