ABSTRACT

In the society of the post-war 1950s, on both sides of the Atlantic, everyone knew their place—hot or cold—or so it is supposed. Donald Winnicott asked whether people society was strong enough, healthy enough, to tolerate antisocial behaviour and recognize, receive, and manage its younger citizens into the social and civic world. Winnicott referred to the “total environmental reactions” that are provoked by antisocial behaviour and by the absence of sufficient thoughtful public, social, official response. Winnicott was clear that the antisocial tendency was precisely that—a tendency. Without recognition of, and response to it, as such, then a “social disease” of stealing and destruction begins to emerge in society. In “The Antisocial Tendency”, Winnicott observes how often “one sees the moment of hope wasted”, and it withers because of intolerance. By any standards there has been an enormous explosion in the ways of communicating with one another, as well as in the immediacy and pervasiveness of these means.