The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment: Studies in the Theory of Emotional Development by Donald Woods Winnicott

Author:Donald Woods Winnicott
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780946439843
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1990-12-31T04:00:00+00:00

After this interview with the boy I had a second one with the parents, and asked them about the boy’s preoccupation with string. They said they were glad that I had brought up this subject, but they had not mentioned it because they were not sure of its significance. They said that the boy had become obsessed with everything to do with string, and in fact whenever they went into a room they were liable to find that he had joined together chairs and tables; and they might find a cushion, for instance, with a string joining it to the fireplace. They said that the boy’s preoccupation with string was gradually developing a new feature, one which had worried them instead of causing them ordinary concern. He had recently tied a string round his sister’s neck (the sister whose birth provided the first separation of this boy from his mother).

In this particular kind of interview I knew I had limited opportunity for action: it would not be possible to see these parents or the boy more frequently than once in six months, as the family lived in the country. I therefore took action in the following way. I explained to the mother that this boy was dealing with a fear of separation, attempting to deny separation by his use of string, as one would deny separation from a friend by using the telephone. She was sceptical, but I told her that should she come round to finding some sense in what I was saying I would like her to open up the matter with the boy at some convenient time, letting him know what I had said, and then developing the theme of separation according to the boy’s response.

I heard no more from these people until they came to see me about six months later. The mother did not report to me what she had done, but I asked her and she was able to tell me what had taken place soon after the visit to me. She had felt that what I had said was silly, but one evening she had opened the subject with the boy and found him to be eager to talk about his relation to her and his fear of a lack of contact with her. She went over all the separations she could think of with him with his help, and she soon became convinced that what I had said was right, because of his responses. Moreover, from the moment that she had this conversation with him the string play ceased. There was no more joining of objects in the old way. She had many other conversations with the boy about his feeling of separateness from her, and she made the very important comment that she felt the most important separation to have been his loss of her when she was seriously depressed: it was not just her going away, she said, but her lack of contact with him because of her complete preoccupation with other matters.

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