THE MATERNAL AND THE PSYCHIC CONSTRUCTION IN THE PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACH TO D.W.WINNICOTTE
This article seeks to generate a renewed interest in ideas that are associated with theoretical understandings concerning attachment, concepts of self and compassion with regard to young children. It is concerned with the ways in which early childhood teachers think about children in relation to their social and emotional development and the development of their personality. Of particular interest is the work of Donald Winnicott (1971), a British paediatrician and psychoanalyst, who is particularly well known for the understanding he has of such things as transitional objects, introduces a term called holding. This term varies from the more common association of physical holding or giving a hug to some one who is upset. Winnicott is referring to the ability of an adult to tolerate and digest or register the feeling of the child. Often, when we are with a child who is upset, we too have a set of feelings evoked. We feel some of what they feel. Doing this in some way helps us to know the state of the other, and to also not be overwhelmed by what the other person feels but to let them know in tone and expression that it is ok to be upset so that they might move through the experience. The task of holding is not to do or to fix but to tolerate, and with this the child too can accept themselves, have the feeling attended to, and to move through the experience. The task of holding is also not about stopping children from expressing their feelings, but it is about holding the feeling that then allows the child to find their equilibrium (Winnicott, 1971).
Keywords: The Psychoanalytical Approach, D.W.WINNICOTTE, Maternal and The Psychic Construction.