Although Donald Winnicott’s concept of “transitional object” is an important concept in psychoanalysis, it is not frequently brought up in discussions of current events. However, recently two events have brought it to mind: the coronation of King Charles III and the indictment of former-President Trump for conspiring to withhold classified documents from the National Archives. The transitional object is often the first "not me" possession that really belongs to the child. It could be a real object like a blanket or a teddy bear, but other "objects", such as a melody or a book. For a child, the object represents the infant's transition from a state of being merged with the mother to a state in which the mother is understood to be someone outside and separate. If this transition is traumatic because of illness, absence or some other incapacity of the mother, the need for a transitional object remains into adulthood.
Christopher Andersen, the author of The King, said that King Charles travels with a childhood teddy bear. He has had it since he was a small child and the only person who is allowed to mend it is his former nanny, Mabel Anderson, to whom he remains close. Christopher Andersen attributes the retention of Charles’ childhood transitional object to his childhood which he characterizes as “heartbreakingly lonely." Andersen claims that Charles has described his mother’s behavior toward him as a child as cold and aloof. According to Andersen, Charles only spent two 15-minute periods a day with his parents when he was a child. When he had a tonsillectomy, when he had a very bad case of the flu, when he fell down the stairs and broke his ankle, when he had an emergency appendectomy at the age of 13, neither his mother nor his father visited him in the hospital.
Priscilla Kauff, in her letter to the editor of The New York Times suggests that we look to the concept of transitional objects to explain former-President Trump’s motivation for withholding classified documents from the National Archives. She says his behavior can only be understood in terms outside the parameters of adult thinking. Kauff says, “Efforts to find a “logical” or even minimally reasonable explanation … tend to run into a stone wall, especially when the behavior clearly defies ordinary logic.” Political analysts have suggested that Trump withheld the documents for financial or political gain, or he wanted to possess them out of sheer vanity. Kauff suggests a consideration of what might be going on deeper inside Mr. Trump psychologically, below the realm of logic and conscious reason. “Think of a child’s beloved stuffed animals, commonly known in psychoanalytic terminology as ‘transitional objects.’ In theory, the transitional object provides a child with a fantasied connection to the safety provided by the “mother” that is increasingly threatened as normal development and separation occur.”
“Transitional objects,” Kauff says, “may also serve perverse or negative functions, such as maintaining the fantasy of unlimited, grandiose power… Mr. Trump’s behavior in protecting his transitional objects (in this case the documents) shows all the characteristics of a child’s response when the beloved stuffed animal is lost or taken away. Anxiety and rage are almost instantaneous. Desperate attempts to retain or restore the transitional objects follow. It may be helpful to reconsider Mr. Trump’s behavior as primitive, regressive and best understood outside the parameters of adult thinking.” (Priscilla F. Kauff, The New York Times, June 16, 2023. Opinion | What Makes Trump Act That Way? A Psychiatrist and a Psychologist Weigh In. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)).
Donald Trump’s childhood experience was akin to that of King Charles. When Trump was 2 ½ years old, his mother, Mary Trump, went to the hospital to give birth to her last child, she had a hemorrhage which required an emergency hysterectomy. She had subsequent infections and four surgeries in two weeks; she almost died. As a toddler, Trump endured the trauma of the prolonged absence and life-threatening illness of his mother. It’s not clear how long she was incapacitated or whether she ever really re-engaged with her son. Donald Trump has referred to his nanny many times, but rarely his mother. Mary was not involved with the intricacies of the day-to-day lives of her children. Reportedly, Donald saw more of the housekeeper than his mother. (President Donald Trump’s Mom, Mary Trump Facts (moms.com); Donald Trump’s Mommy Issues - POLITICO Magazine.)
In the case of Donald Trump, understanding his attachment to the boxes of classified documents as transitional objects is useful because it clarifies his continued references to “my boxes.” The transitional object is often the first "not me" possession that really belongs to the child. His behavior is not subject to a discussion of rational motives. His lawyers cannot control him because regressive behavior is not subject to logic or experience or empirical data. The primitiveness of the attachment is not subject to a logical discussion of consequences.
The concept of transitional objects is useful in understanding child development, but also in understanding many adult behaviors. Kauff pointed out that transitional objects in adulthood can be functional or dysfunctional. When cell phones, watches, wallets, or keys are left or forgotten — one may feel anxious, bereft, or enraged like a child who has lost his teddy bear. Any of these objects can be transitional objects which connect us to a secure base. These attachments are relatively harmless. But, when the object is a cigarette, a glass of wine, or boxes of classified documents it is dysfunctional.