He Belongs With Me!

Transitional objects are quite common in childhood and incredibly adaptive. It comes out of the work of British pediatrician DW Winnicott (well, he was a pediatrician who later became one of the first male child psychoanalysts of the early 20th century). There are a lot of things that Winnicott said that remain important, however the piece that is most relevant here is his idea of the Transitional Object. Essentially, these are things that a child assigns meaning to in order to aid their movement from wholly dependent to more and more independent from their parent. It is a representational object that is assigned meaning – usually of the way they feel when with their parent - and allows for comfort and soothing when alone. Toddlers will often use this psychological tool with abandon, becoming highly attached to any old thing (hello sticks, rocks, wrappers). As children get older they will frequently let go of many of them (literally and figuratively!) but tend to hold on to one or two ‘special’ transitional objects…

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