April 7, 1896

Donald Winnicott (April 7, 1896 to January 28, 1971) was an English psychoanalyst. He was raised in a stately home surrounded by much feminine influence. According to Brett Kahr who wrote, D.W. Winnicott: A Biographical Portrait (1996), Winnicott's father was occupied elsewhere with his work most of the time, leaving his son to be cosseted by mother, aunts, sisters, servants and a nanny. His biographer, in describing "the Winnicott clan" mentioned specifically "a favored pet cat."

Winnicott was mentored by Melanie Klein and himself was influential on Alice Miller. (Miller is controversial for holding that children should not forgive their parents, that such is whitewashing the many cruelties surrounding children).  Winnicott's own analyst was James Strachey. R. D. Laing was later one of those who credited Winnicott with helping them.

Winnicott is known for his theory of the "transitional object" in children's development. That would be a teddy bear most often. Winnicott emphasized that children needed an environment wherein they are literally and figuratively safely held. He did not want disturbed children to be encouraged to be insightful about, say, their transitional object, but to be allowed to play and not question the status of such things.

According to Judith Thurman in a New Yorker article on someone else, in the April 23, 2012 issue, Winnicott was celibate until he was 48 years old, when he left his wife for another woman, and celebrated finding true love.

In 1931 Hogarth Press published his first book, Clinical Notes on Disorders of Childhood. Winnicott's books include Playing and Reality (1971) . There are three volumes of collected papers.