78. Letter from Donald Winnicott to Michael Balint, 5th February 1960

5th February 1960.

Dear Balint:

I am left wondering how you felt about last night.1 Perhaps in some ways you felt satisfied, but it is always very difficult to know what the net result is of a meeting in the Society. As I was not one of the speakers I thought I would like to write a line.

For me, your paper divides itself absolutely into two parts. It might be possible that by bringing the two parts into one paper you confuse the issue a little, and because the paper was so long it was especially difficult to discuss the total implications of it. Almost the whole of the paper seemed to me to do with the history of psycho-analytic theory. I very much envy the way you can draw on your knowledge of Freud's writings and can discuss these matters with a good deal of experience of the way things developed in fairly early days. I simply cannot take part in this kind of an exercise, although I can see its importance. Perhaps I would like to say that whereas I used to be absolutely unable to take part in a metapsychological discussion, I am now just beginning to be able to see a glimmer of light, so that if I live long enough I feel I