ABSTRACT
The transitional object is established in the intermediary area between magical and symbolic thinking. Winnicott speaks of the potential and transitional space between caregiver and infant that leaves room for differentiation and the development of the use of symbols. What is internal can be made external, real and working, by articulating it using social symbols. The image of the mother audibly expressed can make her appear in person. Expressing the two words “Daddy – comforter” in the middle of the night can make the father get up and bring the infant the lost comforter. The acquisition of a common code is so great an achievement that it almost feels magical; magical in the same way as the transitional object, which was a self-made symbol from where the infant enters the world of culturally coded, common symbols of which “mum” and “dad” belong to the first. Hallucinations remain private, but the use of cultural symbols allows us to encounter our imaginations from the outside, as perceived through our senses; and then we can share our internal worlds with others in symbolic play, in narratives, and in other cultural activities that unfold in time and space.
