The Family and Individual Development

The Family and Individual Development represents a decade of writing from a thinker who was at the peak of his powers as perhaps the leading post-war figure in developmental psychiatry. In these pages, Winnicott chronicles the complex inner lives of human beings, from the first encounter between mother and newborn, through the 'doldrums' of adolescence, to maturity. As Winnicott explains in his final chapter, the health of a properly functioning democratic society 'derives from the working of the ordinary good home.'

Table of Contents

Preface. Acknowledgements. Part I: The First Year of Life: Modern Views on the Emotional Development. The Relationship of a Mother to her Baby at the Beginning. Growth and Development in Immaturity. On Security. The Five Year Old. Integrative and Disruptive Factors in Family Life. The Family Affected by Depressive Illness in One or Both Parents. The Effect of Psychosis on Family Life. The Effect of Psychotic Parents on the Emotional Development of the Child. Adolescence: Struggling Through the Doldrums. The Family and Emotional Maturity. Part II: Theoretical Statements of the Field of Child Psychiatry. The Contribution of Psycho-Analysis to Midwifery. Advising Parents. Casework with Mentally Ill Children. The Deprived Child and How He Can Be Compensated for Loss of Family Life. Group Influences and the Maladjusted Child: The School Aspect. Some Thoughts on the Meaning of the Word Democracy.