Contribuições de D. W. Winnicott para a formação em pediatria

Abstract

Donald Woods Winnicott was a British pediatrician and psychoanalyst that had contact, within his profession, with many children and noted the existence of precocious emotional illness. Through that, Winnicott developed the personal maturation theory, witch theorizes about the emotional development, considering that it is in the childhood that the basis of mental health are established and that the human body, mind and psyche are inseparable. Considering that, this study had as objective, to reflect the importance of pediatric medicine’s not to exempt its responsibility with childhood’s mental health and to investigate Winnicott’s contributions to training new pediatricians about emotional development, given that it is up to them to follow through the child’s physical and psychic development. To promote this reflection, a review of this author’s work was made, in order to identify the passages where he addresses to pediatricians. As a result, a compilation of Winnicott’s contributions to the formation and practice of pediatrics are presented. Lastly, it is concluded that, when it comes to mental health prevention, investments in making room to an interlocution between child psychology and pediatrics are needed.