Abstract

TRINDADE, Jaqueline C. Salles  and  FONSECA-SILVA, Maria da Conceição. Presence memory and emotional development in Winnicott. Nat. hum. [online]. 2021, vol.23, n.1, pp. 55-82. ISSN 1517-2430.

This paper aims to show how the constitution of the Winnicottian self is grounded on the experience of support that is made possible by a good enough environment. This environment gets inscribed into the baby's experience as a memory of presence, as we call it. The memory of presence comprises marks of a mother's presence, which babies can already feel and trust, and which repeatedly allows them to make themselves calmly absent from the "objective" world, thus returning to their subjective world at state of rest and relaxation. This is rendered possible by an environment adapted to the baby's need for the creation of a world, while living under the illusion of omnipotence in the primitive mother-baby relationship. The paper also discusses how the patient constituted by the memory of presence may exhibit specific needs while in clinical sessions, by regressing to dependency.

Keywords : Memory of presence; Winnicott; Regression; Psychoanalytic practice.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )