From Donald Winnicott to the naughty step.

From 1943 to the early 1960s Donald Winnicott, paediatrician and psychoanalyst recorded 50 separate talks for BBC Radio starting with 'The Ordinary Devoted Mother and Her Baby' (produced by Isa Benzie) in the 1940s. Anne Karpf talks about his influence to parenting. Winnicott coined the phrase 'the good enough mother'. His work is still influential today and his work was considered to be progressive at the time. Lesley Caldwell, co-editor of Winnicott's Collected Works, historian Sally Alexander and one of his original producers from the 1960s, Sally Thompson, contribute. Winnicott held an open clinic inviting mothers to bring their children to him and discuss their problems where he could observe them. He sometimes courted academic controversy; there a few anecdotes. Psychotherapist Naomi Stadlen provides examples of Winnicott's microscopic observational style. Winnicott's approach and 'cosy' style was distinct from John Bowlby. Two BBC producers, Janet Quigley and Isa Benzie, worked with Winnicott to improve his broadcasting style and the content of the programmes; he was very willing to make changes to engage and not alienate his listeners. Sally Alexander who worked with him on 'Parents and Children', mentions that Winnicott was a 'delight' to work with, this is in contrast to Bowlby, who was not a natural broadcaster. Winnicott's work was a foil to 'punitive' parenting. There is a sound-bite from parenting guru Dr Benjamin Spock, one of the many post-war paeditricians influenced by Winnicott (in turn influenced by Melanie Klein) who offered helpful, practical advice. Winnicott died in 1971 but stopped broadcasting in the mid 1960s; he suffered from ill health and there was also a profound cultural shift in society during this period of time. Penelope Leach (taken from Desert Island Discs) and Miriam Stoppard are more recent parenting gurus who comment. Justine Roberts, founder of Mumsnet, also relates the success of Mumsnet (a popular parenting website) as a consequence of our atomised lfestyles. Tracey Jensen is a researcher studying anxiety around parenting and proposes that programmes actually make the situation worse as this creates a culture of intensive parenting - and failure. Anne Karpf is a writer and sociologist, and Reader at London Metropolitan University.