The DOI matches its Crossref record, with a small difference in title or year.
The theory of the parent-infant relationship.
Abstract
In this paper on the subject of the parent-infant relationship given at an IPA congress, Winnicott looks at actual infancy, as against the psychoanalytic study of primitive mental mechanisms. He asserts that dependence is the key factor in infancy. This dependence needs the ‘holding environment’ of the mother/parental couple. Infancy is enabled by good maternal care and equally may be distorted by inadequate maternal care. The ego of the infant, weak to begin with, is strengthened if all goes well, and he sees the mother-father couple as innately capable of adapting to the infant, although pathology may yet arise in this stage. Winnicott illustrates how strength or weakness of the meeting of dependency in the infant by the parents may then be accessed (or not) in the analytic setting.
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“Renowned psychoanalyst Winnicott (173) coined “holding environment” to describe the safe, reliable, and continuous space provided by the “good enough mother,” supporting the infant’s development through attentive care, physical holding, and emotional attunement. He extended this concept to therapy, where therapists offer a similar “holding environment,” especially for those lacking early emotional”
From Psychoanalytically informed MDMA-assisted therapy for pathological narcissism: a novel theoretical approach (2025) · cites this paper as [173]
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Cited by
Albert, A. E., & Back, A. L. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1529427 · Cited by 6
Metadata
- Authors
- Winnicott, D. W.
- Corresponding author
- Winnicott, Donald W.
- Venue
- The Collected Works of D. W. Winnicott
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Published
- 2016-10
- Pages
- 141-158
- OpenAlex
- W4233290874
- Cited by
- 142
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 7
- FWCI
- 67.01
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Oxford University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Psychoanalysis and Social Critique
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychology and Mental Health
- Keywords
- parent-infant relationship, infancy, infant dependency, holding environment, maternal care, psychoanalytic theory, psychoanalytic psychotherapy
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
