Sparrow: If you'd get a vasectomy, we wouldn't have to go through this every time. Stuart: But... but you know I want to have a baby eventually. Spar… - Alison Bechdel

The most sturdy nouns fell to faint approximations under my pen.

Here's the vital core of Winnicott's theory:
The subject must destroy the object. And the object must survive this destruction. If the object doesn't survive, it will remain internal, a projection of the subject's self. If the object survives destruction, the subject can see it as separate.

It was a vicious circle, though. The more gratification we found in our own geniuses, the more isolated we grew. Our home was like an artists' colony. We ate together, but otherwise were absorbed in our separate pursuits. And in this isolation, our creativity took on an aspect of compulsion.