ABSTRACT
D. W. Winnicott's writings bring together a psychoanalytic understanding of the mind and an existential vision of human life. At the heart of Winnicott's thought is his insistence that the infant's self is at first held by the mother, both literally and figuratively. For Winnicott's infant, the reflection it perceives of itself is totally dependent upon the image of another person, upon the expression on its mother's face. The counterpointing of hate and aggression with the motifs of holding and mirroring highlights how Winnicott's ideas are decisively rooted in the real world of the interpersonal, as well as in the intrapsychic world. From the perspective of learning and education, Winnicott's emphasis on the importance of transitional phenomena indicates how learning occurs not primarily from a 'taking in' of the outside, nor primarily from a 'putting in' by someone on the outside. Winnicott describes a divided personality which lacks any access to a centred, integrated self capable of playing—and, therefore, of learning.
