ABSTRACT
Perhaps the most important and at the same time most elusive of the ideas introduced by Donald Winnicott is the concept of potential space. Potential space is the general term Winnicott used to refer to an intermediate area of experiencing that lies between fantasy and reality. Playing, creativity, transitional phenomena, psychotherapy, and "cultural" experience all have a place in which they occur. Before attempting to introduce some language other than Winnicott's with which to think about the concept of potential space, it might be useful to present some of the experiential referents for this abstract set of ideas. A dialectic is a process in which two opposing concepts each creates, informs, preserves, and negates the other, each standing in a dynamic relationship with the other. Winnicott states that it is within potential space that symbols originate. In the absence of potential space, there is only fantasy; within potential space imagination can develop.
