The Failure and the Tightrope Walk

A Study of the Notion of Communication in Donald W. Winnicott considering the Philosophy of Jacques Derrida

Abstract

The present document aims to establish a dialogue between the thought of Donald W. Winnicott and the philosophy of deconstruction of Jacques Derrida based on the notion of communication. A comparative analysis of the ideas of both authors on communication is carried out using as a starting point a clinical vignette by Winnicott, highlighting how communication is conceptualized both in the analytical setting with the child and in the environment, in relation to the bond between the analyst and the patient's mother. Derrida's deconstruction is important insofar as it places equivocation at the center of communication and as its condition of possibility. It is argued, in short, that the notion of communication in Winnicott and Derrida can be enriched through the dialogue between both perspectives. The metaphor of the tightrope walker is proposed to describe the work of the analyst, who is constantly threatened with failing in communication, but that this very condition validates his vocation.