Toddlers' Complex Communication: Playfulness from a Secure Base

Abstract

Attachment theory is presented in this article as involving embodied relational processes within complex relational systems. Two narrative-like ‘events' are re-presented to illustrate very young children playfully relating — connecting and communicating inter- and intrasubjectively. The ethnographic-inspired research methods included the researcher as a participant observer, an outsider, an other, and a-part yet connected to the observation. Belonging and well-being, holding-on and letting-go, trust and the distributed nature of individual minds connected amidst playfulness, are images observed and interpreted in these (and other) events. Several of Winnicott's metaphorical concepts around transitional phenomena, transitional and potential space, holding, and the environment as a good enough mother, are employed to further extend interpretations and understandings of attachment in complex relational ways. The implications lie in understanding and applying concepts associated with attachment theory in complex ways, rather than simply viewing attachment in terms of simplistic concepts and categories.