The ideas of Winnicott are scattered throughout numerous clinical studies and popular publications. He made a single attempt to write an overview of his ideas, and this is exactly that book. As he states in the introduction: "I intend to make a statement about human nature that gathers the various kinds of experiences I have gained."
This book represents a comprehensive positioning on human nature and the place of psychoanalysis within it. Human nature includes Winnicott's notes from lectures on human development, which he delivered to teachers and social work students for 18 years.
Winnicott reflects on the vast subject of human nature from his own experience, returning to certain themes of enduring interest to him, including health and illness, the body and psychological disturbance, psychosomatic and emotional development, health and instincts, the depressive position, the inner world, illusion, withdrawal, and regression.
For Winnicott, we are not simply a link in biological evolution; we do not possess a body and also a mental life and an encompassing culture that shapes us: Each of us is a unique human nature.
