Finding the Piggle: Reconsidering D. W. Winnicott’s Most Famous Child Case

2021 Gradiva Award Winner

The Piggle is one of the most famous and beloved child cases in the history of psychoanalysis. A two-year-old girl suffering from terrible nightmares, depression, and self-harming behaviours, the Piggle, came to Donald Winnicott for treatment. In writing up the case and allowing it to be published (with the posthumous help of his wife Clare and his student, Ishak Ramsey), Winnicott invited the world into his consulting room and allowed the inner world of the very young child to be seen.

Seven psychoanalysts rediscover the Piggle, meeting her as an adult, re-scrutinising the case as it was formulated by Winnicott, and suggesting new understandings of the Piggle’s material. Introduced by a foreword from Angela Joyce, the book features an interview with the adult Piggle, discussing her recollections of the treatment and her view of its impact many years on, as well as a meticulous historical overview from an investigation of ‘The Piggle’ archive revealing previously unknown information, a critical, detailed reappraisal of the case, and reflections from several authors on how modern psychoanalytic technique might be applied to the case were the Piggle to be seen in 2020.

In this age, when the voice of the child needs to be heard more than ever, Finding The Piggle gives new life to this classic piece of psychoanalytic literature in which the importance of the child’s feelings and conflicts is made abundantly clear. With this comprehensive exploration, a new generation of clinicians and others can rediscover this important case and think about it anew.