120 October 1958-November 1958

73 ~ To Herbert Rosenfeld
roth October 1958.
Dear Dr. Rosenfeld,
I feel like writing to thank you for your paper and for the way
you dealt with the questions raised. I agree with Dr. Gillespie that
it is very important that this subject should be studied as a subject
and not just referred to as it has been in a casual way in the descrip-
tion of cases.
The clinical material in your case rang almost too many bells
and I suppose everyone felt that you were talking about the sort
of things that happen in their analytic work almost daily and giv-
ing some guidance as to how one can best proceed. It amused me
when my first case this morning started up with the following
remark: "Yesterday I left you thinking that you were going to have
a coronary thrombosis, but you are alive; today I am the one just
about to die that way." He is a man in whom hypochondriacal
symptoms play a large part.
I was not altered by what happened in the discussion in regard
to my feelings about the word envy, which I still think adds noth-
ing whatever to the full meaning of oral sadism and which I think
introduces the complication of a serious nature, making commu-
nication between Kleinians and non-Kleinians very difficult. You
will probably agree that it is very important that this matter
should he thoroughly thrashed out.
Thanking you again,
Yours very sincerely,

74 ~ To Victor Smirnoff
r oth November 1958.
Dear Dr. Smirnoff,
Thank you for your further letter about the translation into
French of Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena. I will
try to help you over the points you raise.
 November 1958 . 121

Page 1, col. 2, line 12.

affectionate type ofrelationship.
The word "affectionate" in English means something very like
the word "tender" but it is not used injust the same places. There
is a display of an affectionate relationship when two people who
are in love with each other touch with their hands and tingle. Un-
doubtedly instinct is implied but it is not at the same time opera-
tive. If you watch a small child you sometimes see an erotic type
of relationship between the child's thumb and the mouth and at
the same time an affectionate relationship between the fingers and
the area of the upper lip and nose. It is the affectionate type of
relationship which is typically lost in the delinquent or even in the
early stages of delinquency. Perhaps there is no word in your lan-
guage which just expresses all this which is sublimated affect and
which is very characteristic of most of what a normal child dis-
plays in the way of feeling.
The word "tender" is rather good but it emphasizes an absence
of aggression and destruction whereas the word "affectionate"
neither emphasizes or denies it. One could imagine a hug, for in-
stance, being affectionate and yet far from tender.
Page 2, col. 1 J line 5.
imaginative elaboration offunction etc.
I will try to explain what I mean by this whole paragraph. Let
us assume that someone is trying to make a comprehensive brief
statement of human nature. He might do this referring to the in-
dividual's pattern of external relationships. He might, on the other
hand, do this same thing in terms of the patient's relationship to
his inner psychic reality. Usually the attempt is made to relate the
one to the other and it is sometimes implied that human nature
consists in a mixture of these two aspects each of which enriches
the other. In making this statement account is necessarily taken of
fantasy, conscious and unconscious, fantasy about external mat-
ters and the more mystical psychic phenomena also. In psycho-
analytic theory it is generally taken for granted that the ego is a
body ego, that is to say, the whole structure of the personality is
built up on body functioning and the fantasy that accompanies
body functioning. I have used the term imaginative elaboration of
122 November 1958

function to describe this theory of the fantasy and psychic reality

as being at its origin an elaboration of function. An example of
function would be putting the thumb in the mouth. For the hu-
man infant, however, this function is elaborated. It is never so
simple as that. It means being in control of the thumb which
stands for all other objects which are gathered together in this way
and put into relationship with the mouth, etc. etc. In other words,
function has a meaning for the individual, at first very simple but
later highly complex. I wonder if you can get from this some idea
of my meaning.
I am laying the ground in this first paragraph for the next par-
agraph in which I say that a comprehensive statement of human
nature must include a third intermediate area of experiencing.
This is the area which I associate with the Transitional Phenomena
and Objects.
Page 2 col. 2 (4) (bottom of page).
J

mouthing
By mouthing I simply mean manipulating with the mouth. The
baby can be said to put the thumb in the mouth as if this were an
experience of the thumb. One can look at it the other way round,
however, as an experience of the mouth and then mouthing means
what the mouth does to the thumb. It does not necessarily imply
the production of sounds but it implies a relationship with an ob-
ject via the mouth.
Page 3, col. 2 (7)
go inside
I like the rather awkward literal French translation because the
word 'introject' implies an intellectual process rather than a matter
of the psyche-soma. I think you may find a tendency for the
French language to take you over into the intellectual concept and
away from the psyche-soma or the rather literal meaning of the
words inside and outside, which are more appropriate I feel when
we are talking about early infancy. The position of the thumb, for
instance, neither inside nor outside is probably important to the
infant at the time of birth when there is not much intellect avail-
able for introjection and projection mechanisms. Nevertheless I
recognise that in translating you may decide to use the word 'in-
 November 1958 123

trojection,' which would be correct except for the objections that

I have raised, that the mechanism is crude and almost physical.
Page 4, col. 2, line 14.
comforter
A comforter in this context means something that comforts. It
is not a piece of rubber. Comfort implies the recognition that there
is trouble.
Page 5, in the comparative study.
cult.
This word 'cult' is difficult for you to translate because it is not
very well chosen. It was the word given by the parent and it
seemed to fit at the time. The child collected objects because of
certain similarities and sorted them because of certain dissimilari-
ties. I think that your term might be used, 'un veritable cult.' An
alternative English word would be 'a collection of objects.'
Page 6, col. 1, line 15.
deadness
Deadness here means simply lack of aliveness and of all the fea-
tures which characterise the state of being alive.
Page 6, col. 2, line 15.
maternal failure.
Failure here is an equivalent for insufficiency.
Page 6, footnote 11, col. 2.
resting place ofillusion.
This is certainly rather a curious way of putting things. I mean
that there is a constant struggle in the individual throughout life,
distinguishing fact from fantasy, external from psychic reality, the
world from the dream. The Transitional Phenomena belong to an
intermediate area which I am calling a resting place because living
in this area the individual is at rest from the task of distinguishing
fact from fantasy.
Page 8, subtitle.
disillusionment.
Yes, there is a reason why I use 'disillusionment.' I think there
is no English noun disillusion although there is the verb.
12 4 November 195 8-M ay 1959

Page 8, col. 2, line 24.

delusion.
Yes, I do mean delusion here in the hallucinatory sense although
not necessarily a visual hallucination; it could be a belief.
Page 9, col. 1 line 14·
J

basis ofinitiation ofexperience.

Here I am trying in my summary to relate experiencing to the
transitional phenomena.
I am implying that actual experiencing does not stem directly
either from the individual's psychic reality nor from the individ-
ual's external relationships. This sounds rather startling but you
can perhaps get my meaning if you think of a Van Gogh experi-
encing, that is to say, feeling real, when painting one of his pic-
tures, but feeling unreal in his relationships with external reality
and in his private withdrawn inner life. I think that this idea badly
needs working out but it is this sort of thing that I am trying to
convey that is giving you trouble here.
Let me know if there are any other points or if some of this is
still obscure.
Many thanks.
Yours sincerely,
D. W Winnicott.

75 ~ Tb Donald Meltzer
z rst May 1959.
Dear Dr. Meltzer:
I think you must have felt that your paper' was enjoyed last
night. Personally I am glad you read it slowly, although it meant
that you took about fifty minutes instead of twenty. It would not
have been an easy paper for people to discuss unless they had had
the material in front of their eyes, and even this they would want
to study well before getting further than an understanding of the
material.
I think you will agree with me that it is only possible to make
long interpretations like the ones that you reported under special