ABSTRACT
The paradox introduced by D. W. Winnicott concerning the transitional object is that, according to his definition, the object must be found in order to be created and created in order to be found. The extension of the field of analysis to borderline cases or psychotics led Winnicott to introduce technical variations into treatment. However, certain events in Winnicott’s childhood and adolescence reveal traits of character, certain tendencies, which are probably not unconnected with his determination to study medicine. Clare Winnicott notes an interesting detail which says a lot about his contact with children. Clare Winnicott relates how she had always encouraged her husband to write his autobiography; he always put it off until later. Yet, in the last years of his life, he began to jot down notes in a notebook, perhaps at the time when ‘the reality of his own death had to be negotiated, and this he did, again gradually and in his own way’.
