British Psychoanalytical
Society

Book Notice

Face to Face with Children: The Life and Work of Clare Winnicott


Joel Kanter
Published by Karnac Books 2004
Catalogue No: 17328
ISBN: 9781855759978
 

This book presents the life and work of one of the leading British social workers of the 20th century. The wife of Donald Winnicott, an analysand of Melanie Klein, a wartime innovator in helping evacuated children, a teacher and mentor to a generation of British social workers and a gifted psychoanalyst, Clare Winnicott's life encompassed a remarkable richness of relationships and accomplishments.

[Clare Winnicott] showed that social workers who spent time with and who could relate with, play with, and talk with children could enable them to deal with their difficulties. Joel Kanter should be thanked for so carefully and clearly bringing Clare Winnicott back to the notice of the world of social work.’
Dr Bob Holman, Visiting Professor in Social Policy at the Universities of Glasgow and Swansea

‘Joel Kanter has edited for us mental health professionals a most important and timely book. Its focus is on the thinking and practice of Clare, whose original profession was social work, and the story of the mutual influences between her and Donald Winnicott, the medical analyst who became her husband. It is as though Clare and Donald began a dialogue that has grown in volume and intensity, and out of which both professions may broaden and deepen in knowledge and therapeutic competence.’
Jean Sanville, Ph.D., Training Analyst, Los Angeles Insitute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies; Founding Dean, California Institute for Clinical Social Work

'Joel Kanter has woven together so many diverse events, ideas, tasks, achievements that are all part of Clare’s life, and at the same time he has managed to depict the essential inter-relationship between Clare and Donald which kept the importance of playing and enjoying each other’s company as the context within which the struggles of their lives took place. I am grateful to him'.

Pearl King

Author Biography:
Joel Kanter, MSW, LCSW has been a practicing social worker since completing his graduate education at Smith College School for Social Work in 1974. A graduate of the Advanced Psychotherapy Training Program at the Washington School of Psychiatry, he is currently a Senior Clinician with Fairfax County (Virginia) Mental Health Services and is in private practice in Silver Spring, Maryland. He has taught, lectured and written extensively on many topics involving the community treatment of mentally ill clients, including case management, family consultation and day treatment. His publications in these areas include Coping Strategies of Relatives of the Mentally Ill (NAMI, 1984), Clinical Issues in Treating the Chronic Mentally Ill (Jossey-Bass, 1985), Clinical Studies in Case Management (Jossey-Bass, 1995) and over twenty chapters and articles.

Review

Eleanor Patrick in the Counseling and Psychotherapy Journal, May 2004

Clare Winnicott (née Britton) was a lead trainer of social workers in the 20th century. Her work connected to childcare and social work shed important light on every aspect of interacting with vulnerable others. This book is a breath of fresh air in a world of regulation and control. Half the content comprises Kanter?s excellent overview of Clare?s life, using excerpts from her output and interviews with friends, relatives and former colleagues.The rest of the book comprises reprints of a selection of Clare?s articles, conference presentations and letters. These cover her work with evacuees in Oxfordshire and then move on to specific ideas from her work, such as the rescue motive and the development of insight and self-awareness. Finally, we find her writings about Donald. These focused, personal disclosures have the unexpected effect of ?normalising? Donald and amplifying Clare. The two were in fact equal partners, neither able to operate so well if the other were missing. They ?played? together as adults and provided holding for each other, such that both of their fields of work benefited. Clare loathed administration and hated conflict, claiming she was most free to function at her best when given a bit of elbow room. She was ?greatly troubled? by many aspects of Klein?s analytic technique and once walked out on her. She explained her absence from bed shortly before she died saying: ?I have been to a party; it is such a waste of ones life spending it in bed; isn?t it? Kanter?s book is a fitting tribute to the influence dare had on British childcare policy in the 1950s and 60s. My overriding impression is of the relevance of her work today. In most places you can mentally substitute ?counsellor? for ?social worker? and feel the resonance as she speaks about the holding environment and the need to contain. The book will be of interest to anyone involved in children?s work or related helping relationships: teachers, counsellors working with parents and caregivers, and social workers frustrated with bureaucracy and into dynamic psychology. Perhaps even Donald Winnicott fans!

Eleanor PatrickAssociate Editor, CPJ