Clare Winnicott
Clare Winnicott | |
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Occupation(s) | Social worker, university teacher and psychoanalyst |
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Clare Winnicott,
Early life
Born in the northern seaside town of
Throughout the
Clare's family moved frequently during her childhood, first to
Early career and LSE training
Clare went on to attend
World War II and evacuees
In 1940, during the
The London School of Economics also suffered as a result of the war, and the programme had to be suspended for a year as the school relocated to Cambridge. The school's departments were divided and spread across the campus leaving the students in the social work program isolated.[1] Not only did the war affect the school Clare attended, but the impacts of the Blitz would also find their way to Clare personally and leave a lasting impression on her as a young woman. During the German Luftwaffe's bombing of Great Britain, Clare's maternal grandparents fled Southend-on-Sea after their house was damaged by bomb blasts. The early years of the Second World War proved intensely destructive in her life as, by 1941, her maternal grandmother had died and her younger brother had narrowly evaded capture by German troops during the Battle of Crete.[1]
Unlike her classmates Clare did not pursue a career in a mental health clinic or hospital setting on completing the LSE course. Having witnessed firsthand how the war forced countless English families to evacuate their homes, fathers and brothers sent away to war, while mothers joined the workforce on the
Work with Donald Winnicott
Donald and Clare collaborated on the article, "The Problem of Homeless Children." The article describes the responsibilities of a social worker in the evacuation scheme as well as impacts of the war on child behavior.[1] Many colleagues of Clare and Donald expressed that their ability to collaborate effectively was unparalleled. In 1945, the death of a child in the English foster care system opened a widespread investigation in which Clare participated as a member of the committee investigating the incident alongside Winnicott, whom she had worked with previously on evacuation. The committee, The Report of the Care of Children Committee, discovered over 100,000 children in need of foster care or adoption placement in England and Wales. The committee's findings sent shockwaves across Britain and ultimately led to the passing of the Children Act 1948, an act of Parliament which established a comprehensive childcare service in the United Kingdom. The committee also continued to train social workers and staff on the changing childcare system.[1] The London School of Economics collaborated with the committee to establish Britain's first programme for the education of social workers in the new children's departments. Clare, having gained the respect of the academic and social work communities, was appointed the first "Lecturer in Charge" of the new course. The programme included classes in Child development, legal issues, and sociology. In her courses, she avoided abstractions such as psychoanalytic theory and focused on her students' work in childcare.[1] Donald Winnicott also taught on this programme and, having worked extensively together both in teaching and on the committee, Clare and Donald Winnicott were married on 28 December 1951.[1]
Work with disrupted children
Along with her work on the evacuation scheme, Winnicott also worked with other children including juvenile delinquents, mentally disabled children, and children in foster care. She also took time to work with special mental health cases including enuretics and through therapeutic regression.[1] With each intervention, she realized that environmental changes could have a therapeutic effect. As she gained awareness of the inner world of children, she began to put together her own theories in which she later discussed the importance of "transitional objects."
In her 1945 paper, "Children Who Cannot Play", she discussed the loss or removal of "loved" or attachment items such as blankets or specific toys and how this can impact a child's emotions and behaviour. Even though she had at that stage minimal familiarity with psychoanalytic theory, she elaborated an Object Relations Theory in her paper and drew parallels with her observations.[1]
Post-war
After the war, she continued to work with children on the evacuation scheme, in foster care, and adoption. This involved work with the Civil Resettlement Units of the War Office in Kingston-on-Thames. She helped assist British Army personnel who had been prisoners of war who had endured psychological trauma. She noted similarities between the men returning home and the children she had worked with previously and drew parallels between the soldiers and deprived children.[1] During this time, her work began to attract public attention.
In 1946, she began teaching a course alongside Leslie Bell at the
Teaching at LSE
Clare Winnicott's was appointed to lead the programme on a new social work programme at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1947.[3] She became well known across the United Kingdom, and this led to invitations to lecture at other universities. One of her students in that period was Olive Stevenson who would become highly influential as a Social Policy academic and administrator.[4]
In 1954, she presented her work at a United Nations seminar on social work. She wrote a paper, "Casework Techniques in the Child Care Services," after her address at the 1954 United Nations Seminar on European Social Services. Her paper was well received and later published in academic journals in Britain and in the United States.[1] New trends led to the closure of the childcare course at the LSE in 1958. It coincided with a forced leave of absence due to meningitis.[1]
Psychoanalytic training
In 1949, she embarked on a training in psychoanalysis with W. Clifford M. Scott, an analysand of Melanie Klein.[1] She wanted to learn Kleinian analysis but was disappointed when Scott did not work in the expected manner.[1] Scott returned to Canada and she sought to work with Klein herself. After finally working with Klein, she was again disappointed to find Klein's theories focused almost entirely on negative aspects of child health.
She continued her own training with the British Psychoanalytical Society.[1] With her husband she continued to teach at the LSE until 1964. Her 1959 paper, "The Development of Insight", referred among others, to Anna Freud. The implied criticism of Kleinian theory eventually led to a rift between Clare Winnicott and Mrs Klein.[1]
Civil service
In 1960, having completed her clinical training, she applied for a government post.[1] In 1963 Beti Jones, president of the childcare social work association, backed her for a leading post at the Home Office which she gained in 1964 and led to her re-organising social work training.[1] The 1968 Seebohm Report led to the amalgamation of government social work tasks.[5] Partly as a result, Winnicott lost her post, but she was awarded the Order of the British Empire.[6][1]
DW Winnicott dies
Following her husband's death in 1971, she lost her job at the Home Office and returned to psychoanalysis and briefly to the LSE as head of the social work department.[7] The year of her husband's death was also the year she was awarded the Order of the British Empire, which he was unable to witness. For about ten years she taught and supervised in the psychoanalytic section of the British Association of Psychotherapists (BAP).[8]
She ran a small analytic practice and offered clinical supervision to colleagues until she died as a result of skin cancer on April 15, 1984.[1][9]
Legacy
Clare Winnicott's contributions had a profound impact on childcare and social work,[8] particularly through her contributions to the Curtis Committee, and at the Home Office.[10]
Joel Kanter has argued that Winnicott's legacy as a psychoanalyst suffered due to the more prominent standing of her husband.[11][12] Others, such as Brett Kahr and F Robert Rodman, have noted her influence over the work of her husband.[13][14]
The Clare Winnicott Prize, named in her honour, was instituted in 1986 by "GAPS" (Group for the Advancement of Psychodynamics and Psychotherapy in Social Work, inspired by Clare Winnicott and founded in 1971 by Sally Hornby) for an innovative essay on a social work theme by a previously unpublished social work practitioner or student. The award includes publication of the piece in The Journal of Social Work Practice.[15][16]
Selected writings
- C. Britton and D. W. Winnicott, "The problem of homeless children". The New Era in Home and School 25, 1944, 155-161
- C. Britton, 'Children who cannot play' (London 1945)
- C. Britton, 'Remarks' in "The Oxfordshire Hostels Scheme". Report of Child Guidance Inter Clinic Conference. 1946, 29–35, 42-43
- C. Britton, "Residential management as treatment for difficult children". Human Relations 1 (1), 1947, 2-12
- C. Britton, "Child care" in C. Morris (ed.): Social Work in Great Britain. London 1950
- C. Winnicott, "Casework techniques in the child care services". Social Casework, 36 (1), 1955, 3-13
- C. Winnicott, Child Care and Social Work: A Collection of Papers Written between 1954 and 1963. Hertfordshire: 1964
- C. Winnicott "Communicating with children (I)". Child Care Quarterly Review 18 (3), 1964, 85-93
- C. Winnicott "Communicating with children (II)". Social Work Today 8 (26), 1977, 7-11
- C. Winnicott, 'Fear of Breakdown: A Clinical Example'. International journal of psychoanalysis. 61 (1980). 351-357
- D. W. Winnicott. "A reflection" in S. Grolnick and L. Barkin (eds.) Between Fantasy and Reality. Transitional Objects and Phenomena. New York: 1978, 15-33
Bibliography
Works about Clare Britton Winnicott:
- Kanter, Joel (1 September 2000). "The Untold Story of Clare and Donald Winnicott: How Social Work Influenced Modern Psychoanalysis". Clinical Social Work Journal. 28 (3): 245–261. S2CID 140946855.
- Kanter, Joel |(ed.) Face to Face with Children. The Life and Work of Clare Winnicott. London, New York: Routledge 2004. ISBN 978-1855759978
See also
References
- ^ OCLC 1053853710.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/91810. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ "Winnicott, Clare". Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
- ^ "Home Page". Olive Stevenson.
- ^ Report of The Committee on Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Services, Cmnd. 3703. July 1968.
- ^ Alan Cohen (1980). Tim Cook; Harry Marsh (eds.). "The Clare Winnicott interview, no.24" (PDF). University of Warwick. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
- ISBN 978-0429898266.
- ^ a b Nölleke Brigitte (25 July 2019). "Clare Winnicott". Retrieved 2 January 2020.
- ^ Nölleke, Brigitte. "Women Psychoanalysts in Great Britain: Clare Winnicott". www.psychoanalytikerinnen.de. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
- ISSN 1361-9462.
- ISSN 1475-3634.
- ISSN 1573-3343.
- ISSN 0065-860X.
- ^ Vickers, Neil (5 July 2016). "Book Review: Brett Kahr's 'Tea with Winnicott'". BMJ Medical Humanities. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
- ^ "Journal of Social Work Practice". www.tandfonline.com.
- ^ "Clare Winnicott Awards". GAPS.
Further reading
- Michael O'Loughlin (2010). Michael O'Loughlin; Richard T. Johnson (eds.). Imagining Children Otherwise: Theoretical and Critical Perspectives on Childhood Subjectivity. volume 46 of Rethinking childhood. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-1433110177.