More on Winnicott’s The capacity to be alone

I like, as always, the poetic rhythm Winnicott offers to the reader! As I was reading Winnicott’s The capacity to be alone, I questioned whether the author was trying to make explicit a narcissistic developmental issue or a schizoid developmental trauma? In my view, the latter was more likely.

The capacity to be alone is presented as a prerequisite of the capacity to be alone with your self. While he goes very deep in helping us understanding the issue I think the paper misses addressing the other side of the coin, that is, the capacity not only to be with your self but also the capacity to be without the other. This is in my view different from the former one. I did not see something written in the paper regarding dissociative phenomena, especially about those clients who are caught in between, partially being able to stay alone, and, simultaneously, stay without the other.

These clients can stay in silent moments in treatment for a while and give a glance to the analyst. They can stay partially alone in the presence of the analyst but cannot stay equally alone without his presence (that is evident via the glance). Many times as well these clients are alone psychically in the presence of the analyst: they are involved with the discussion but you sense their body is frozen (not in excitement attachment). This is an indication, I think, that they can be partially alone in the presence of the analyst, and with themselves, but not alone without him .

Winnicott, D. (1958). The capacity to be alone. Int.J.Psa., 39:416-420.

Stavros Charalambides

Athens, Greece