Phenomenological remarks concerning Playing and Reality
Phenomenological remarks concerning Playing and Reality

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims at two different but connected tasks. The first of thesewould be that of giving a philosophical overview of Winnicott’s Playing andReality. The second task will consist in giving a phenomenological interpretation ofsome fundamental concepts found in Playing and Reality. Here we could recall thetransitional object, the transitional area, and even the mirror role of the mother’sface. The phenomenological authors which will be briefly invoked here are Husserl,Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Eugen Fink and Marc Richir. Marc Richir is the onlyone of these authors to have given a holistic interpretation of Winnicott’s work, thusproviding phenomenological insights of Playing and Reality. The other authors willalso be invoked, but their work will be not discussed at length, so that we do notinterrupt the fluidity of our interpretation of Winnicott’s text. The interpretationswill follow organically from Winnicott’s ideas which will be merged with the bodyof the text. This paper also aims at underlining the possible connections betweenphenomenology and psychoanalysis, in our case, especially the psychoanalysis ofthe child. We are going also to see how certain phenomenological concepts might play along with psychoanalytical theories.

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