Ongoing · Study group
Potential Space
A Winnicott study group, reading slowly in the order he wrote.
Begins
Sunday, January 17, 2027
When
Sundays, 8:30–10:00 AM PT
Where
Weekly, ongoing
Online via Zoom
Why We Read Him in Order
Winnicott is often encountered in fragments: a phrase about the good-enough mother, a reference to the transitional object, a line quoted in supervision. This study group offers something different. We read his work from the beginning, paper by paper, in the order it was written, allowing each text the time it asks for.
Reading chronologically lets us follow the development of his thought as it happened: how his years as a pediatrician gave rise to his theory, how clinical encounters led him to revise earlier formulations, and how his ideas about infancy deepened into a theory of psychoanalytic treatment itself. His style is inseparable from his meaning, and a slow reading honors both.
“There is no such thing as a baby.” — D.W. Winnicott
A Way to Hear the Infant Within the Adult
Winnicott came to psychoanalysis through forty years of pediatric practice, and his theory never lost the texture of what he saw there. He watched infants on their mothers’ laps reach for a shiny spatula on his desk, pause, and then take hold of it, and he learned to read that pause as a first negotiation with the world. He noticed that a baby looking into its mother’s face finds itself reflected there, and that a child first learns to be alone in the presence of someone who is reliably there.
Reading him has changed how I listen to adult patients. The hesitation before reaching out, the search for a face that reflects, the dread of a breakdown that, as he proposed, has already happened in infancy before it could be experienced: all of these return in the consulting room. For psychoanalysts and candidates, Winnicott offers a way to hear the infant within the adult, and to understand how deeply the earliest years of care shape who we become.
Format, Participants, and Participation
Format
Each week we read a single paper or chapter closely, moving forward through The Collected Works of D.W. Winnicott. Discussion is open and associative, with room for clinical material, and no written assignments: a holding environment for thought.
Who should attend
Psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and clinicians in psychodynamic practice, and candidates in psychoanalytic training. Prior familiarity with Winnicott is welcome but not required.
Participation
Offered at a nominal fee, in keeping with our commitment to making psychoanalytic learning accessible. Write to us to discuss fees and details.
Facilitator
Chandra Rai is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Palo Alto, California. She is an Analyst Member of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA), the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (SFCP), and the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC). She serves as an Adjunct Clinical Instructor at Stanford Medicine and Adjunct Faculty at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.
Continuing Education: CEUs are not offered for this study group.
First Six Weeks
January: 17 · 24 · 31
February: 7 · 14 · 21 · 28
March: 7 · continuing weekly
Reserve Your Place
Offered at a nominal fee. Reserve your spot on Luma, or write to us with questions about fees or format.
Questions? interapeople@gmail.com · See all events