A capacidade de estar só: a perspectiva psicanalítica de D. W. Winnicott

Abstract

This work aims to understand the capacity to be alone from the psychoanalytic perspective of D. Winnicott, thus seeking the importance of this theoretical formulation for human maturation and, consequently, showing its relevance to the clinic. In our clinical experience, we find many people who fear being alone and are always in search of someone or something to do. And very often we listen to these individuals who, when alone, do not know what to do, feel lost, helpless, so they prefer to work without rest to feel alive. This led us to interest in the study of the capacity to be alone in the light of Winnicottian psychoanalytic thinking. For this, in view of the classical principle of hermeneutics, in which each concept of an author must be elucidated in the totality of his work, one sought the comprehension of the capacity to be alone in the whole psychoanalytic thought of D. W. Winnicott. In this way, we tried to contextualize the starting point of the Winnicottian psychoanalytic vision and global comprehension of its psychoanalytic perspective, emphasizing some concepts, such as: the human animal, the experience animal, the ego and id, his notion of Instinct and drive, that of false and true self, that of ego (egorelatedness), the paradox, that of favorable environment, and especially its fundamental theory of human emotional maturation. We emphasize these concepts, therefore, as they support the understanding of the study theme. From this, we sought to reflect on the ability to be alone and to explain the understanding of this original Winnicottian formulation, served as a clinical case attended and described by Winnicott himself, the so-called case B. From the theory of emotional maturity of DW Winnicott, the ability to be alone is associated with an important initial moment of human development: the essential solitude. With evolving from the integrative process of the individual, five fundamental themes need to be established for him to experience being alone, as ability: first, the status of a unitary identity; Acquisition of a personality and a personal identity (true self); Third, the organization of the egoic nucleus that makes possible to experience a personal environment; Fourth, personal development facilitated by the maternal environment and, finally, the recognition and incorporation of maternal (mother-environment) care as a good object. Thus, in Winnicott's perspective, being alone as a capacity is a highly sophisticated phenomenon, in which the individual enjoying emotional health can experience, with all confidence in himself and in the environment in which he is inserted, being with himself, calmly, Being able to rest, relax without losing contact with shared reality and, moreover, live their interpersonal relationships, be it friendship or loving, with personal sense, experiencing them as real and valiant