As part of the celebrations of the centenary of the birth of Donald Woods Winnicott, the Museum, in collaboration with The Squiggle Foundation, organised a two-day conference at the French Institute, London in November 1996, attended by an international audience of more than 300 participants.
The Squiggle Foundation has worked for the past 20 years to communicate, through seminars, lectures and publications on the work and and enduring influence of D W Winnicott, formerly President of the British Psychoanalytical Society, an a leading figure of the "Independent" tradition in British psychoanalysis.
The Museum was delighted to work alongside Nina Farhi, Director Emeritus of The Squiggle Foundation, and the new Director Jan Abram on this major international event.
The international panel of speakers addressed, each in their own way, the theme of communication, so central to Winnicott's conception of psychoanalysis:
Dr F. Robert Rodman (USA) Winnicott and Freud
Jan Abram (UK) Squiggles, clowns and Catherine wheels: Violation of the self and its vicissitudes
Dr Kenneth Wright (UK) Creativity and dialogue
John Fielding (UK) 'Mother, this is not enough': Beckett's 'Footfalls' and Winnicott's mothers
Dr Michel Gribinski (France) The furtive object
Dr Jean-Claude Rolland (France) Winnicott as a Romantic
The Journal of The Squiggle Foundation hopes to publish these papers
in a special edition.