Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena

This paper describes the interstices between illusion and reality and their importance in emotional development. Some soft object or equivalent is often found and used by an infant, and becomes what Winnicott calls a transitional object. Transitional objects involve the nature of the object, the infant’s capacity to recognize the object as ‘not-me’, to create, think up, devise, originate, produce ‘an object’ and to initiate an affectionate type of object relationship with it, based on the earliest one with the mother or carer. When basic symbolism is employed the infant is already distinguishing between fantasy and fact, between inner objects and external objects, between primary creativity and perception. The…