Book excerpt: One of Britain's leading psychoanalysts and pediatricians, Donald Woods Winnicott (1896 - 1971) was the creative mind behind some of the most enduring theories of the child and of child, adolescent and adult analysis. Winnicott's work is still relevant today for child and adult therapists, psychoanalysts, social workers, teachers, and psychologists, and his papers and clinical observations are routinely studied by trainees in psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and clinical psychology. Brought together into a single volume for the first time, the writings that compose Twelve Essays on Winnicott originally appeared as part of the landmark publication The Collected Works of DW Winnicott (winner in the Historical category of the American Board & Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize for best books published in 2016). These twelve works of original scholarship provide a distinctive chronological map to Winnicott's theoretical developments and clinical innovations. The result is a substantial contribution to psychoanalytic theory and practice that will be of interest to clinicians, scholars, and new and lifelong students of the work of Donald W. Winnicott.