He noticed that in his clinical work with infants they needed time to recover from a thing done: he would present the infant with a spatula, the infant would have a look at it – a new object and therefore a new fact of life – and then look away; if he tried to force this new fact upon the infant the child would become distressed and cry, but if the spatula was allowed to stay there, exist in all its initial dumbness, then the infant could return to it with interest and investigate. Winnicott’s highly suggestive observation can be applied to many situations prevailing in a psychoanalysis, but I
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The need to process facts. Something happens we need a moment to assimilate it.
