transitional object

plural transitional objects

1. human sciencesAn object, such as a security blanket or stuffed toy, used by a young child to self-soothe and cope with separation from a parent or other attachment figure.

   1 more example

   It would also be many years before I learned about [ Donald Winnicott's ] primary contribution to psychoanalysis, the concept of the "transitional object." Babies often make use of a special possession as they learn that they're separate from their mother. It occupies a "territory between the subjective and the objective." It's not "me," but not "not-me," either.

   2005, Alison Bechdel, Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published 2012, page 56