Clinical Notes on the Disorders of Childhood

This is a reprinting of Winnicott's first book, Clinical Notes on the Disorders of Childhood, a classic study of the illnesses of childhood in which Winnicott seeks to distinguish the diagnosis and treatment of those conditions which have an organic basis and those arising from anxiety states and having therefore psychological causes. The accounts given in these histories of the distinct personalities of different neurotic children show that the 'nervous child' of the textbooks is as much a myth as is the 'economic man'. The author draws attention to the fact that childhood is the time when bodily illness is frequently the expression of emotional conflict. Many later clinicians and practictioners have recognized Winnicott's seminal work here in the development of psychosomatic medicine.