ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that fruitful confrontation is possible, at least when it is a matter of bringing together the views of authors who were able to develop an open-ended yet coherent set of concepts to account for the whole field of psychoanalytic practice. It illustrates how each of them “survives” a confrontation with the other, and how both theories may profit from the encounter. The chapter also shows that the work of exegesis required by the difference in their respective vocabulary and conceptual background, Jean Laplanche and Donald Winnicott are actually in agreement. It discusses Winnicott recapitulates those steps as: “Subject relates to object, Object is in process of being found instead of placed by the subject in the world, subject destroys object, object survives destruction and subject can use object”. Laplanche’s thinking is also much richer than the schematic picture conveyed by a brief presentation of a few key concepts.
