Abstract

MIZRAHI, Beatriz Gang  and  GARCIA, Claudia Amorim. The capacity to be alone: a winnicottian counterpoint to the contemporary ideal of absolute autonomy. Psicol. rev. (Belo Horizonte) [online]. 2007, vol.13, n.2, pp. 267-280. ISSN 1677-1168.

According to Robert Castel, the modern ideal of freedom and autonomy was made possible by the development of social institutions that compensated for the extreme vulnerability of the individual, who, at the onset of modernity, was left on his own. This analysis points out the paradoxical thesis that individual freedom does not contradict but, on the contrary, presupposes the existence of solid social bonds that allow the free exercise of individual autonomy. Winnicott, from a subjective point of view, contributes to the understanding of this paradox, arguing that, during the different phases of the maturation process, individual autonomy, represented by the capacity to be alone, depends on the presence of an environment strong enough to encompass differentiation with no risk of retaliation or loneliness. This paper, therefore, articulates sociological and psychoanalytic contributions with the aim of better understanding the present social crisis that results from the dissolution of social institutions.

Keywords : Autonomy; Modernity; Helplessness; Capacity to be alone; Good enough environment.

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