Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

particular significance for the nature of religious and spiritual engagement and have become
pivotal for subsequent writers in this area who feature in subsequent chapters. 153
Firstly, Winnicott introduced the concepts of transitional phenomena, transitional objects,
and transitional space as ‘a hypothetical area that exists (but cannot exist) between the baby
and the object’ (Winnicott 1971: 107). This allows the baby to separate, play and create
both physically and psychically in their inner and outer worlds. The capacity to recall
transitional experience finds expression in art and religion often focused around a symbol or
an ‘object’, in essence a relationship. Object-use for Winnicott was the holding of both
internal meaning and significance, and external engagement with another in mutual
subjectivity. A mother exists within the psyche of the infant and is subject to the infant’s
omnipotent control whilst also an external person with his or her own autonomy. This
concept allows belief in a god/God that is internal and a god/God that is external without a
false dichotomy although Winnicott never used his ideas to suggest this. For Winnicott ‘the
place where we live’ is an ‘intermediate zone … a potential space … a third area of human
living, one neither inside the individual nor outside the world of shared reality’ (Winnicott
1971: 110). Based on the quality of early relationships and the support of an external
environment, play and creativity are able to emerge. The focus of mysticism on the inner
world, ‘the centre of the self’, is balanced by the outer world of infinity ‘reaching out
153 A brief but helpful overview that puts Winnicott in a biographical frame and examines key ideas on religion
can be found in Sayers (Sayers 2003). Rodman provides the most detailed biography on Winnicott (Rodman
2003) although other helpful texts are found in (Jacobs 1995; Kahr 1996; Phillips 2007). Hoffman offers the
best account in part because she parallels Winnicott with Fairbairn (Hoffman 2004, 2008).
65