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About the Book
Winnicott’s Letter to Bion presents reflections on a fascinating moment in the history of psychoanalytic thinking.
Donald Winnicott’s letter, sent on October 5, 1967, and conveying thoughts about two of Wilfred Bion’s papers, never received a response. In this book, international contributors elaborate on the contents of the letter, overlapping and divergent projects of the two psychoanalysts, and the meaning of Bion’s silence. The chapters consider topics including the historical context of their work, their focuses on play and reverie, and the question of the sensuous.
Winnicott’s Letter to Bion will be of great interest to psychoanalysts in practice and in training, and to historians of psychoanalysis.
About the Editors:
Steven H. Cooper, PhD, is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and the Columbia Center for Psychoanalysis. He is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. In the Fall of 2025, he was the Visiting Erik Erikson Senior Clinical Scholar at the Austen Riggs Center. He is Chief Editor Emeritus of Psychoanalytic Dialogues. Dr Cooper is the author or editor of eight books in psychoanalysis, including three recent books, Playing and Becoming in Psychoanalysis published in 2023, Psychoanalysis in Play: Expanding Psychoanalytic Concepts from a Play Perspective in 2025, and with Christopher Lovett, Winnicott’s Letter to Bion: Playing, Dreaming, and Beyond all published by Routledge. He is the recipient of this year’s best paper prize of The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, a prize he also won in 1988. He is in private practice in New York.
Chris Lovett, Phd, is a graduate of The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, where he is currently a member of the faculty. He is a member of the editorial board of The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association and a former member of the editorial board of The International Journal of Psychoanalysis. He has published articles in Psychoanalytic Dialogues and The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the most recent of which is forthcoming and entitled, ‘Showing Up and the Present Moment in Psychoanalysis’.
In 2025 the book he co-edited with Steven H. Cooper, entitled Winnicott’s Letter to Bion: Playing, Dreaming, and Beyond was published by Routledge Press. He also contributed a chapter to that book entitled, ‘On Not Playing with Winnicott: A Not-So Curious Case of Non-Communication’.
He is private practice in Newton Centre, Massachusetts.
