ABSTRACT
Winnicott (1965) has eloquently described in his writings how the individual needs a ‘facilitating environment’ if he or she is to grow towards emotional and cognitive health. He shows how development is an interaction between the uniqueness of the individual inheritance and the environment that holds and contains the individual. Bion (1962) wrote in detail about the nature of a facilitating environment, in which he suggested that the infant needs mental and physical breast milk, the milk of understanding, that can transform fear and terror into something safer, as well as the physical milk that comforts and nourishes the physical organism-a breast that is both psyche and soma. If a mother, for instance, is chronically depressed (without the milk of understanding) following the birth of her baby and there is not a ‘good enough’ experience of physical and emotional holding and nurturing available from some other close figure, such as father or another relative, friend, or professional, then babies and young children may not thrive or develop satisfactorily. It is not, however, a oneway traffic, for lively and good-humoured babies frequently can coax and encourage their mothers to take an interest in them, and can help a mother gather herself.
