Squiggles, clowns and Catherine Wheels

The article develops a reflection on Winnicott's concept of isolated self, to which are attributed characters of being permanently unknown and incommunicable. This topic is further discussed with the help of another concept of the same author, that of scision into the true and the false self, and of some texts by Marion Milner where Winnicott's ideas of isolation and incommunicability are questioned. In the sequence, the therapeutic significance of the "object which survives" is examined. To that end, a clinical exemple is presented and analized. Keywords: Winnicott, Self, Incommunicability, Isolation, Surviving object

Art · Psychoanalysis · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Thomas Hardy Literature Studies · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy