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This book focuses on one of D. W. Winnicott's most enduring and resonant formulations, the True and False Self. It is a salutary reminder of Winnicott's capacity as the acclaimed advocate of maternal'holding'—also for sharpness and for the sudden piercing stab of recognition.

The motif of time and space runs as a continual thread through this book, which examines the relationship between psychotherapy and the theatre as underpinned by Winnicott's writings. The author supplements her theories with Jung's ideas on self, the writings of Lacan and the prose, drama and poetry of Yeats - an unusual blend between diverse and often opposing schools of thought.

This is the second monograph to be published under the auspices of Winnicott Studies, the Squiggle Foundation's renowned series of publications on contemporary applications of Winnicott's thought. Like its predecessor, which concentrated on the True and False Self, this volume focuses on a single topic: Winnicott's treatment of fathers. The volume includes a reprint of Winnicott's 1965 paper,'A child psychiatry case illustrating delayed reaction to loss', which is followed by John Forrester's'On holding as a metaphor', which expands and comments on many of the issues which Winnicott raises. John Fielding then provides an insight into Shakespeare's treatment of father-figures; Graham Lee outlines a new approach to the Oedipus complex in the light of Winnicott's insights; and Val Richards concludes with some clinical and theoretical thoughts. Taken together, these papers provide an intriguing composite picture of Winnicottian thought today, on a topic which is of increasing social and cultural interest.