Some Remarks Concerning the “Use of An Object”

Abstract

"The aim of this paper is to propose some philosophical interpretations of Winnicott’s concept of “the use of an object”. These interpretations will be coming from Heidegger’s fundamental ontology and from Buber’s late philosophical anthropology. We also noticed that Winnicott’s theory of “the use of an object” was already in some way or another present in the Phenomenology of Spirit, in the fourth chapter, where consciousness is treated in terms of desire. Our main thesis is that after the subject encounters the resistance of the external world, its adversity and contrasting feature, the subject recognizes it as something independent and autonomous from the self, so the subject is able therefore to set that being at a distance, enter into relation with it, and finally establish the world qua world. We are going also to draw lines between Winnicott’s perspective and the views of some phenomenological authors such as Eugen Fink, Merleau-Ponty or Marc Richir. Keywords: Hegel, Buber, Winnicott, Heidegger, resistance, distance, relation, object, destructiveness, aggressivity. "