General aspects of Winnicott's redescription of the basic concepts of Freud's psychoanalysis

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine a series of researches results about the changes that Winnicott's works represents for the development of psychoanalysis and to add some explanations in order to show how Winnicott reformulated the main concepts of psychoanalysis. Through Freud's perspective, according to which psychoanalysis is a science whose empiric pillars are the concepts of unconsciousness, sexuality, Oedipus Complex, transfer and resistance, it is shown that Winnicott reiterates the importance of these concepts, but giving them other meanings. Eventually, it is possible to say that such changes, when connected with the abandon of the metapsychological theorization, can modify the epistemological picture of psychoanalysis. Through this type of analysis, we try to explain how Winnicott remains freudian keeping away from Freud.