D.W Winnicott, Melanie Klein, and WR Bion: The controversy over the nature of the external object - holding and container/contained (1941-1967)

The author examines D.W. Winnicott's multi-layered, dialogue with the London Klein group, most particularly with W.R. Bion and their respective views on the role of the external object in terms of "holding" and "container/contained". The author maintains that Bion in part appropriated aspects of Winnicott's research trajectory, obscuring this appropriation because of Klein's injunction that Winnicott's work not be taken up. The separatist existence of the three major schools of analytic thought in the British Psychoanalytical Society also underscored a widespread disinclination towards comparative psychoanalytic theory. As a result, Winnicott's theory of holding has stood alongside Bion's theory of container/contained until recent efforts at comparison. The author concludes with comments on how theoretical and clinical differences between analytic theorists can be both generative and still remain antagonistic at the boundaries of passionately maintained group affiliations.