ABSTRACT
The activity of mirroring as a metaphor for holding, hearing, and full mother–baby interaction sets the scene for D. W. Winnicott’s transitional stage. This is an intermediate state where the infant, although, in S. Freud’s words, still “his Majesty the baby” is beginning to recognize reality. Like the breast itself, though provided by the mother, the baby enjoys the illusion of having itself created this favoured possession: Winnicott’s transitional object is half-way between the symbol and symbolic equation. The early relationship with a created transitional object is a prelude to the action captured in Freud’s account of his baby grandson, in what became known as the “Fort Da” game. The counterpointing of meaning-making with non-meaning that characterizes transitional states is replicated in psychotherapy in its blend of illusion and reality. It involves the power to maintain a tension between illusion and reality, and so play in Winnicott’s intermediate, transitional space.
