Resumé winnicott anglais

Summury article winnicott

This article talks about one foundational theory of the psychoanalyst Winnicott: the capacity to be alone.

The author says that the capacity to be alone is a sign of maturity for the subject.

The capacity to be alone is significant.  In fact, it can emerge from a silent session when the patient is taken care of with a psychoanalyst and this is positive. It is during that silence that we understand if the patient, is able to be alone.

The capacity to be alone is essential to growing up, but Winnicott states that being alone is always associated with a positive presence with a caregiver in the childhood.

Winnicott delved into the capacity to be alone in the presence of someone else.

The author also makes a reference to Klein. In fact, he explains that for children, the capacity to be alone is related to the capacity to internalize a good object, meaning a good enough “mother-figure” which provides an “internal environment”.

Thanks to that, the child will build a positive relationship which internalizes and support his ego in order to stay alone.

This theory is paradoxical because it includes two egos in relation together “ego relatedness” but paradoxically these two egos always exist alone. This special relationship already appears in the first years of the child.

Indeed, everyone is alone with itself, but it is also critical to know how to be alone with someone else.

Moreover, this theory is essential to understand the child's development and its needs.

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