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In his work, D.W. Winnicott explores the origins and function of aggressiveness as well as hatred in the psychological development of the child. Although he concedes the presence of aggressiveness in the newborn, he clearly distinguishes it from the notion of hatred. His opposition to the Freudian concept of “death instinct” underlies his criticism of Klein’s argument on primordial hatred. But a chronological reading of the texts dealing with this issue confirms that the primordial role he gives to the environment and the object from the very beginning of life conditions his conception of aggressiveness and destructiveness.