ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the clinical usefulness of this understanding, looking at the very beginning of life and the stage that Winnicott called “absolute dependence” or “double dependence”. Kenneth Wright says that “Separating out has two main aspects such as, the growth of a boundary, and the development of distance between self and other”. Winnicott’s idea of human nature and human development has been noted for its optimism and for its emphasis on health. The holding environment of the completely adapted and attuned mother protects the baby from what Winnicott calls “impingement”. Winnicott was able to envisage simultaneously the different perspectives of the immature baby and his mature mother. Winnicott’s “primary maternal preoccupation” describes the state of mind in the months during and after pregnancy in which she is sensitive to the experience and needs of her baby. Winnicott accounts for Freud’s death drive in terms of failure of the environment at the earliest stage of absolute dependence, before “unit status”.
