M103  

Transitional Experience

Johanna K. Tabine has made some interesting contributions to Winnicott's theories by introducing the idea of ‘transitional experience’ in her paper ‘Transitional Objects as Objectifiers of the Self in Toddlers and Adolescents.’ [i]  She discusses the typical situation where a child is seen clutching its ‘blankie’ in one hand while mother holds the other hand and leads the child out through a door or off to bed.  She says that spatial transitions cause anxiety in small children because at that stage of ego development they understand objects only through their location in space.  To move one's self to a different location can therefore cause anxiety about continuity of the self, and it is at this time that children seek comfort by using a transitional object.  The child invests the object with aspects of the self, which therefore represents the self, and the child's control of this object and the object’s continuity during experiences of transition reassure the child about its own continuity. This indicates that transitional objects may do more than represent the mother relationship.  They are concerned more generally with the child’s existential anxiety and need for reassurance.  Tabine introduces several concepts, including transitional experience, and the use of objects with reference to continuity of self, identity, and control.

Personal resonance

The concept of anxiety caused by spatial change created a feeling of personal resonance.  Perhaps we continue to suffer transitional experience anxiety despite the fact that we have passed that crucial stage of development.  I have noticed myself having difficulty at times moving from one activity to another, or getting out of the house to some other location.  I have always thought of this as a sense of inertia, and generally overcome it by creating time deadlines by which I must force the change.

I discussed this with a friend who confided that she experienced reluctance in getting out of her car in the morning and entering her work place, despite the fact that she enjoyed work.  It was just that the transition from home to work was so enormously large.   If it were true that such changes continue to cause anxiety, perhaps we should also ask whether we continue to use some form of ‘transitional objects’ at these times.   All those things that we can’t leave behind such as mobile phones, keys, bags or briefcases, diaries, wallets and coats.  We feel insecure if we accidentally leave things behind.  Are they perhaps acting as transitional objects and securing the continuity of our selves?  Linda Wilson [ii], Occupational Therapist and academic, suggests that the things we take with us are also tools that enable us to ‘do’ things, and if we leave these things behind our ability to ‘do’ is impaired.  An inability to do something that we need to do definitely causes anxiety, though what we do, and what we are known for doing, and at which we are competent, also confirms our sense of identity and control.

This inertia or transitional experience anxiety could alternatively be read with reference to Freud’s concept of Thanatos, the death drive, which is an urge to a state of calm or reluctance towards change or activity - ultimately to a state of non existence. [iii]  The ideas appear similar, with the difference that Freud’s Thanatos is rather more dramatic, and implies other hidden causes, whilst Tabine brings the concept into normal coping behaviour.