19 Quotes by Donald Woods Winnicott

Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide.

The mother gazes at the baby in her arms, and the baby gazes at his mother's face and finds himself therein...provided that the mother is really looking at the unique, small, helpless being and not projecting her own expectations, fears, and plans for the child. In that case, the child would find not himself in his mother's face, but rather the mother's own projections. This child would remain without a mirror, and for the rest of his life would be seeking this mirror in vain.

It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.

It is a joy to be hidden, and disaster not to be found.

There is no such thing as a baby, there is a baby and someone.

Play like dreams serves the function of self realization.

Tell me what you fear and I will tell you what has happened to you.

The fact that grief takes so long to resolve is not a sign of inadequacy, but betokens depth of soul.

It is in playing, and perhaps only in playing, that the child is free to be creative.