ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Donald Winnicott’s work on transitional objects and transitional phenomena in the life of the infant offers a formulation of some of the features of adult Eros, the mature fulfilment of genital sexuality between male and female. The movement from infantile to adult and the achievement of sublimation in adult sexuality will be addressed with reference to John Donne’s poem “The Good-Morrow”. The different contributions of psychoanalytic and of poetic understanding of representations of Eros, from its rudimentary features in infancy to its adult manifestation. Eros will be taken to represent love in its sensual, erotic, possessive, desiring, attaching, affectionate, and devotional sense, primarily in the full relations between man and woman. The chapter highlights passages from Winnicott’s writing alongside the poem by Donne. It explores several areas of developmental change, from infantile transitional phenomena to adult sexual intercourse, each of which elaborates this in distinct ways.
