ABSTRACT
One of the most interesting periods in the history of psychoanalysis in France was undoubtedly the time in the mid-1960s when the influence of D. W. Winnicott – the man as well as his work – was at its height. It was all the more surprising since the psychoanalytic world, at that time, was in a turmoil because of the very sharp doctrinal controversies and splits among the different institutions. Winnicott was immediately acknowledged and adopted by all those groups, those who remained faithful to Lacan’s teaching as well as those who kept their distance or even moved on to other ideas.
