ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on that space in between, a space that Winnicott called a potential space and that, in later life, is also cultural experience. In Playing and reality Winnicott reminds of his understanding of human nature as having few constituents: an inner psychic reality, an external reality and an intermediate area of experience. Winnicott's suggestion was that, to enable its self to move from subjective knowing to the world beyond, a child might adopt a concrete object to act as a defence against the uncertainty that would inevitably accompany such explorations. Winnicott repeatedly emphasises that trust develops in slow and secret ways but can be stolen in a flash. For the therapist, a moment of trust-testing typically centres on the giving of an interpretation, and a mistimed interpretation can, he suggests, set a client back years.
