Winnicott Studies No. 11

Editor Laurence Spurling Editorial Committee Jan Abram Sheila Ernst Nina Farhi Rosie Parker Val Richards Rachel Sievers Margaret Walters Lindsay Wells Gillian Wilce Editorial Consultants Christopher Bollas John Davis Juliet Mitchell Adam Phillips Jacqueline Rose Anthony Rudolf Andrew Samuels Published for The Squiggle Foundation (Registered Charity No. 283858) 11 North Square, London NW 11 7AB by Karnac BooksLtd. Karnac Books 58 Gloucester Road 118 Finchley Road 4QY London SW7 London NW3 5HT Copyright 0 1996 by The Squiggle Foundation All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, by any process or technique, without the prior written perhiission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. ISSN: 0267-3 142 ISBN: 978 1-85575-13 1-36 1 85575 131 CONTENTS Editorial 1 The Application of Group Analysis in the Childbearing Year: The Function of Holding b y Jessica James 3 Lullabies and Rhymes in the Emotional Life of Children b y Renata Gaddini 28 A Historical Analysis of Winnicott’s “The Use of an Object” b y Laurel Samuels 41 Winnicott and Transference: The Knife-edge of Belief b y Laurence Spurling 51 A First Approach to Clinical Work Taken by the Hand of Winnicott b y Carolina Castro ... 62 An Anthology o f Poems collated b y Anthony Rudolf 71 Winnicott Bookshelf 82 Correspondence 94 Contributors to this issue 96 ISSN: 0267-3142 ISBN: 978 1-85575-131-3 1 85575 131 6 Printed in Great Britain by BPCC Wheatoris Ltd. Exeter EDITORIAL This volume begins with two papers on the theme of holding. Jessica James, in her paper "The Application of Group Analysis in the Childbearing Year: the function of holding", uses her experience as a group conductor of parents with new-born infants, and as a birth attendant, to show that in order for the mother to be able to hold her infant she herself needs to feel held by a parental figure. Professor Renata Gaddini's paper on "Lullabies and Rhymes in the Emotional Life of Children" looks at an aspect of holding through the mother's singing of lullabies and other songs to her infant. Her paper draws on and follows on from an earlier paper, "The Precursors of Transitional Objects and Phenomena", published in Winnicott Studies, volume 1, 1985. The two following papers attempt to throw more light on Winnicott's thinking on the use of an object and on the transference. Laurel Samuels, in her paper "A Historical Analysis of Winnicott's 'The Use of an Object"', investigates the circumstances, and the effect on Winnicott himself, of his first public account of his concept of the use of an object, at a lecture given to the New York Psychoanalytic Society in 1968. My own paper. "Wimicott and Transference: the knife-edge of belief', takes an historical and critical look at the concept of transference, and attempts to flesh out what is distinctive in Winnicott's understanding of transference. The two final contributions are intended to mark the fact that Winnicott Studies is changing from a journal to a series of books (described below), which means that this is the last volume of Winnicott Studies in its present form. In her paper "A First Approach to clinical work . . taken by the hand of Winnicott", Carolina Castro attempts to tell two stories: of her clinical work with a young boy, and of her own work in turning Winnicott into a form of mentor and inspiration for her, rather as she became for her client. Winnicott Studies was always intended as a spur fo