Books / Psychodynamic & attachment
Playing and Reality
D. W. Winnicott’s Playing and Reality (1971) brings together writing on play, transitional phenomena, object relations and cultural experience.
Book details
Author of listed edition: Donald W. Winnicott
Edition: 1st edition (1971)
Publisher: Tavistock Publications
Edition year: 1971
Language and origin: English (United Kingdom)
Form and genre: Clinical & Theoretical Monograph
Level: Intermediate
Historical era: 1960–1979 · Humanistic, Cognitive & Systemic Turn
Covers: Transitional objects and phenomena; Potential space; Use of an object; Play in psychotherapy
APA 7th reference: Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Playing and reality. Tavistock Publications.
What it is
Playing and Reality was first published by Tavistock in London in 1971. The original edition brings together eleven chapters on psychoanalytic ideas concerning play, creativity, relationships and cultural experience.
What it covers
The contents include transitional objects, playing, the use of an object and the mirror role of the mother and family. In an excerpt from the chapter on cultural experience, Winnicott places play in an intermediate area of experience and relates cultural experience to play and transitional phenomena. This is his psychoanalytic formulation.
A later interpretation
In a 1985 paper, Thomas Ogden offers a theoretical reading of Winnicott’s potential space in terms of relationships between fantasy and reality. Its abstract describes difficulties that may arise in sustaining that process; it does not establish a diagnostic rule or prescribe treatment.
Limits of this entry
This entry uses an edition bibliography, one chapter excerpt and an abstract of Ogden’s later paper. The complete book and the complete later paper were not read. Their psychoanalytic ideas are interpretations rather than established descriptions of every person’s development or treatment.
Paired academic and clinical scholarship
Paired work: On Potential Space (Thomas H. Ogden, 1985)
Reference: Ogden, T. H. (1985). On potential space. The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 66(2), 129–141.
Ogden offers a psychoanalytic interpretation of potential space and discusses possible difficulties in maintaining it. This is a theoretical account, not a validated diagnostic rule.
Source-mapped claims and evidence notes
Claim 1: The 1971 Tavistock edition contains eleven chapters, including chapters on play, the use of an object and cultural experience. (The Oxford bibliography gives the original edition’s contents; the complete book was not read for this entry.) [Source 1: Oxford University Press. Complete back catalogue of the published books of D. W. Winnicott. In The Collected Works of D. W. Winnicott, volume 12.]
Claim 2: Winnicott described cultural experience in relation to transitional phenomena and play. (The chapter excerpt sets out Winnicott’s theoretical account, not a universally established developmental sequence.) [Source 2: Winnicott, D. W. (1971). The location of cultural experience. In Playing and reality. Tavistock Publications. Chapter excerpt.]
Sources and inspection notes
Supports: Lists the first 1971 Tavistock edition and its eleven chapter titles.
Supports: Chapter discusses transitional phenomena, play and cultural experience. Other chapters were not read for this entry.
Supports: Abstract describes Ogden’s interpretation of potential space; the full paper was not read.
National Library of Medicine. Playing and reality: 1971 edition catalogue record.
Supports: Records author and 1971 Tavistock publication.
Winnicott, D. W. Playing and reality. Routledge Classics.
Supports: Publisher record for a later Routledge Classics edition, distinct from the 1971 edition.