Winnicott and Derrida: Development of logic-of-play

Shachaf Bitan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this essay I develop the logic of play from the writings of the British psychoanalyst Donald W. Winnicott and the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. The logic of play serves as both a conceptual framework for theoretical clinical thinking and a space of experiencing in which the therapeutic situation is located and to which it aspires. I argue that both Winnicott and Derrida proposed a playful turn in Western thinking by their attitude towards oppositions, viewing them not as complementary or contradictory, but as 'peacefully-coexisting'. Derrida criticizes the dichotomous structure of Western thought, proposing playful movement as an alternative that does not constitute itself as a mastering construction. I will show that Winnicott, too, proposes playful logic through which he thinks and acts in the therapeutic situation. The therapeutic encounter is understood as a playful space in which analyst and analysand continuously coexist, instead of facing each other as exclusionary oppositions. I therefore propose the logic of play as the basis for the therapeutic encounter. The playful turn, then, is crucial for the thought and praxis expressed by the concept of two-person psychology. I suggest the term playful psychoanalysis to characterize the present perspective of psychoanalysis in the light of the playful turn. I will first present Derrida's playful thought, go on to Winnicott's playful revolutionism, and conclude with an analysis of Winicott's clinical material in the light of the logic of play.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)29-51
Number of pages23
JournalInternational Journal of Psychoanalysis
Volume93
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Absence
  • Deconstruction
  • Derrida
  • Dialectic
  • Dichotomy
  • Epistemology
  • External reality
  • Inner reality
  • Logic
  • Logic-of-play
  • Metaphysics
  • One-person-psychology
  • Paradox
  • Philosophy
  • Play
  • Playful
  • Playful psychoanalysis
  • Playing
  • Potential space
  • Presence
  • Transitional object
  • Transitional space
  • Two-person-psychology
  • Winnicott

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Psychology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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