ABSTRACT
For D. W. Winnicott, there was the body at the root of development out of which a “psychosomatic partnership” evolved. Winnicott described a psychosomatic symptom as a sign of the dysfunction of the link between psyche and soma, whereas in health the tendency is towards integration and personalization, when a functioning personality develops within and harmoniously with a functioning body. In his book Clinical Notes on Disorders of Childhood, Winnicott emphasised his interest in the relationship between psyche and soma, in health as well as in disturbance. In his 1966 paper, Winnicott highlighted the positive function of somatic symptoms, as they represent an attempt to maintain in some form an altered psychosomatic relationship. Winnicott argues that when the harmony of the psyche-soma is lost, the infant or adult does not experience the body as reliable and the sense of self is fragile.
