Aggressiveness and enviromental provision

Abstract

This paper presents some of Winnicott's ideas on aggressiveness, with special attention to its roots and to the relationship between aggression and the intermediate stage of the emotional development. It emphasizes the role of the environment in transforming the natural aggressive impulse into destructibility or creativity. Boaz's - the sixteen-year-old character in "Black Box", a romance by the Israeli writer Amós Oz - change from destructive attitudes to constructive activities is used as a clinical illustration. Keywords: Aggressiveness, Intermediate stage, Potential aggressiveness, Environment, Antisocial behavior, Destructiveness, Creativity.