Face to Face with Children: The Life and Work of Clare Winnicott

333 Pages·2019·0.903 MB·English

by  Joel Kanter

FACE TO FACE
WITH CHILDREN

FACE TO FACE
WITH CHILDREN
The Life and Work of
Clare Winnicott
Edited by
Joel Kanter
Forewords by
Jeremy Holmes
Brett Kahr
KARNAC
KARNAC
LONDON NEWYORK

COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Jason Aronson for permission to reprint “D.W.W.: A Reflection”, from
S. Grolnick & L. Barkin (Eds.), Between Fantasy and Reality: Transi-
tional Objects and Phenomena (New York: Jason Aronson, 1978)
[chapter 13].
British Association of Social Workers for their kind permission to re-
print “Casework Techniques in the Child Care Services”, Case
Conference, 1 (9): 3–15 (1955), and Social Casework, 36 (1): 3–13 (1955)
[chapter 6]; “Face to Face with Children”, from J. King (Ed.), New
Thinking for Changing Needs (London: Association of Social Work-
ers, 1963) [chapter 7]; and “Communicating with Children—II”,
Social Work Today, 8 (26): 7–11 (1977) [chapter 9].
Alan Cohen for permission to reprint “Child Care in Oxfordshire:
Interview with Alan Cohen” [chapter 5].
Institute of Psychoanalysis, for permission to reprint “Fear of Break-
down: A Clinical Example”, International Journal of Psycho-Analysis,
61: 351–357 (1980) [chapter 17].
Kay McDougall for permission to reprint “The Development of In-
sight”, from C. Winnicott, Child Care and Social Work (Hitchin,
Hertfordshire: Codicote Press, 1964) [chapter 11].
National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organizations for permis-
sion to reprint “Communicating with Children—I”, Child Care
v
Quarterly Review, 18 (3) (1964) [chapter 8]; “The ‘Rescue Motive’ in
Social Work”, Letters in Child Care Quarterly Review, 9 (3): 120 (July
1955), and 10 (1): 12–13 (January 1956) [chapter 10].
New Era in Education for permission to reprint “The Problem of Home-
less Children”, with D. W. Winnicott (The New Era in Home and
School, September–October 1944) [chapter 2].
The Squiggle Foundation for permission to reprint “DWW: His Life
and Work” [chapter 14].
Taylor & Francis for permission to reprint “Introduction” from D. W.
Winnicott, Deprivation and Delinquency (London: Tavistock, 1984)
[chapter 4].
The Winnicott Trust and Paterson Marsh Ltd for permission to repro-
duce “Development Toward Self-Awareness” from Challenges,
Frustrations, Rewards, for Those Who Work with People in Need, Report
on the 1964 Conference (Shrewsbury: Shotton Hall, 1964); and
Toward Insight for the Worker with People (Shrewsbury: Shotton Hall,
1971) [chapter 12]; “Early Observations on Object Relations
Theory” (unpublished letter) [chapter 15]; and “Lois Munro” (un-
published essay) [chapter 16].
World Educational Fellowship for permission to reprint “Children
Who Cannot Play”, from Play and Mental Health (London: New
Educational Fellowship, 1945) [chapter 3].
CONTENTS
PREFACE ix
ABOUT THE EDITOR xii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiii
FOREWORD by Jeremy Holmes xvii
FOREWORD by Brett Kahr xxiii
1 Clare Winnicott: her life and legacy
Joel Kanter 1
PART ONE
Oxfordshire
2 The problem of homeless children (1944) 97
3 Children who cannot play (1945) 112
4 Introduction to Deprivation and Delinquency (1984) 122
5 Child care in Oxfordshire:
an interview with Alan Cohen (1980) 127
vii
viii CONTENTS
PART TWO
Working with children
6 Casework techniques in the child care services (1955) 145
7 Face to face with children (1963) 166
8 Communicating with children—I (1964) 184
9 Communicating with children—II (1977) 198
PART THREE
Social work
10 The “rescue motive” in social work (1955–56) 213
11 The development of insight (1959) 216
12 Development towards self-awareness (1964) 227
PART FOUR
On D. W. Winnicott and psychoanalysis
13 D.W.W.: a reflection (1978) 237
14 D. W. Winnicott: his life and work (1982) 254
15 Early observations on object relations theory (1943) 278
16 A personal tribute: Dr Lois Munro (1974) 281
17 Fear of breakdown: a clinical example (1980) 284
PUBLISHED WORKS OF CLARE WINNICOTT 295
REFERENCES 299
INDEX 305
PREFACE
The challenge of this volume is to allow Clare Britton Winnicott
to emerge as a person in her own right, separate from her
husband yet intimately involved with him. For those who knew
her personally, and Donald as well, this is not a difficult task: her
talents were recognized by almost all of them. A leader in child care
and social work in Britain, through her work at the London School of
Economics and the Home Office she influenced a generation of profes-
sionals.
However, as her main task in the last decade of her life involved the
enhancement of her husband’s professional legacy, most professionals
today only know Clare, if at all, as the wife of a leading psychoanalyst.
Her final professional writings are centred on Donald’s life and work;
many of those closest to Clare in her last years knew little or nothing
about her substantial professional contributions. And, while overshad-
owed by an idealized husband, Clare was also overshadowed by a
devalued profession: even most social workers look outside their pro-
fession for wisdom or insight.
As David Howe commented:
because social work arises in response to problems of everyday liv-
ing, its expertise rests in gaining a thorough and sensitive under-
standing of ordinary matters. The catch for social workers is that if
the technical base and strength of occupation consists of a vocabu-
ix