Synthesis Sunday: Slogging Through Winnicott's Theory of the Parent-Infant Relationship

Well.

Of all the articles that I could have chosen, this one is a doozy for me. I am surrounded by vocabulary that I do not understand, and I am determined to figure out what the big deal is about this guy and his writings. I want to be familiar with these theories so I can assimilate them into my own understanding of what happens in family systems. I want to understand so I can deepen my own knowledge to become a better music therapist for my clients.

Okay.

For some reason, however, Freudian psychology confuses me, and this article has LOTS of references to Freud. I know that this article was published in 1960, so most folks only really had Freud and Jung to focus on, but I feel that we have grown so much since then to include other types of perspectives. Freud always makes me feel a bit cranky - mainly because I think that most of his theories about humans were wrong - so having to read from a Freudian perspective makes me automatically confused and disgruntled.

Nevertheless, I will move forward.

Here are some of the things that Winnicott is trying to tell me (I think...)

• infants are not really all that easy to analyze within a Freudian context due to lack of experience as humans
• parents often interact with their infants within their own experience patterns and will sometimes look to their analyst for leadership and guidance for interactions with their infants
• waiting for a response or for the client to initiate interaction is possibly the most important thing that an analyst can do during treatment
• something about projections - when I read this word, I always think of A Wind In The Door and A Swiftly Turning Planet by Madeleine L'Engle - she uses the term as a literary device and my brain automatically goes there rather than the Freudian concept - TANGENT!!
• the infant and maternal care are interlinked

This is just the first two pages, and I already have so much to unpack and try to understand.

I work with some clients who were abandoned by their biological parents. Some were adopted from orphanages from across the world. All of my clients have been diagnosed with intellectual/developmental diagnoses as well as displaying chronic psychiatric symptomology, and I wonder if the lack of a parent-child relationship from birth has something to do with their current labels.

I then go down pathways of wondering if this bond, missing from birth, is something that can ever be replaced or replicated after those crucial first months of life.

I have to believe, in my heart, that the lack of a stable parent-child relationship can be replaced or replicated. If I didn't, then there would be no use in doing the job that I do. I also believe that the lack of this type of relationship can have lasting effects on the infant that can never really be reversed. I hope that more will become clear the more I work on this article.



Winnicott, D.W. (1960). The Theory of the Parent-Infant Relationship1. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 41:585-595