The Anti-social Tendency
Connected to the concept of holding is 'pre-delinquent behaviour, which Winnicott calls "the anti-social tendency". He says of this: is not a diagnosis. It...may be found in a normal individual, or in one that is neurotic or psychotic'. Instead, Winnicott saw it as a cry for help, as a search for holding not previously found within the family itself. 'Antisocial activity for Winnicott is an expression of the delinquent child's sense of loss, a rupture of an earlier integration the child carried within him'. In response, the 'child whose home fails to give a feeling of security looks outside his home for the four walls...looking to society instead of to his own family or school to provide the stability he needs'.
Read more about this topic: Donald Winnicott
Famous quotes containing the words anti-social and/or tendency:
“It was easy to recognize in him the anti-social animus of a born evangelist, but there was also something else—a kind of voluptuous delight in the shabby and preposterous, a perverted aestheticism like that of a latter-day movie or radio fan, a wild will to roll in and snuffle balderdash as a cat rolls in and snuffles catnip.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“As parents it is well to be aware of the tendency to equate energetic activity with contest. Our children’s worth does not depend on their ability to trounce one another. And surely we can find ways of frolicking and being healthy and active together in some joyful, free way that is not an adversary relationship.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)