I find it very interesting that often when a particular long-term love interest finds its way back into my life I start reaching for my toy rabbit to cuddle. It is such an intuitive response and I am interested in exploring where it comes from psychologically. My current understanding is that Sylvain the rabbit forms a ‘transitional object’ for me.

The concept of a transitional object comes from the work of Donald Winnicott.

Working with young children, Donald Winnicott (1951) identified transitional objects as items which were both created and discovered by an infant for comfort, and to support the developmental necessity of separating from their primary caregiver.

Perhaps the fact that this perceived relationship occurs totally online without the person I am connecting with in my physical presence at all, has led me to intuitively reach for a soft toy that supports the necessity of being separated from my love interest.

Certainly, in moments when I feel like I need to physically connect with this person across space and time, it feels very soothing to hold my toy rabbit and massage his ears and shoulders!

I am not sure if this behaviour is related to some stitch in the fabric of my early childhood, or if it is simply an innocent response to a rather unusual situation. But my toy rabbit is very comforting to me at the moment!

And yet, as the article above alludes to, it is an unusual kind of behaviour to develop in a 40-something woman! I would love to know if there is some deeper significance to this behaviour! However, it is also true that some people come back to transitional objects when they are bereaved, so, perhaps it is quite a normal response to bridging the gap between a connection that is not physically present.