ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the stage for a more detailed exploration of compliance, for Winnicott the antithesis of creative living, and non-compliance. Earlier descriptions of a good enough facilitating environment have inevitably touched on the question of failure and so Winnicott's proposal of True and False Self Structures needs again to be addressed including the idea that a False Self Structure, characterised by compliance, is a defence against annihilation. The suggestion will be made that, while educational institutions expend a great deal of energy on non-compliance, they play with compliance and that this might be a game that should be played with great care. The emergence of an overwhelming False Self corresponds to a complete or catastrophic failure of the facilitating environment. The chapter considers the 'good enough' (m)other, some failure is a necessary and inevitable feature of any environment; it is the appropriate level of challenge that leads to learning.
