Meltzer describes the series of lectures on Freud, Klein and Bion known as The Kleinian Development as both a quest for personal integration into some kind of ‘combined internal psychoanalytic object’, under whose aegis he personally could aspire to work, and as a vademecum for students. They were originally delivered to students at the Institute and at the Tavistock, specifically with the aim of demonstrating the logical development of that line of psychoanalytic practice. Seeking for this logical development reveals ‘an unfolding of method, leading to discovery of new realms of phenomena, generating in turn new models of the mind, which then modify method, etc.’
Richard Week-by-Week represents a unique and innovative approach to teaching the insights and techniques of Kleinian psychoanalysis, with Mrs Klein herself as teacher and learner at the same time. The Narrative of a Child Analysis offers a unique opportunity to watch Mrs Klein at work in the whitehot environment of the play-consulting room, pushing the boundaries of her conceptual tools whilst remaining acutely sensitive to the needs and sensibilities of the child and the transference emotions which are always at the forefront of her attention.
Meltzer’s own love and admiration for Mrs Klein shines throughout his critique of the Richard story, making this probably his most personal and passionate book, a tribute to both his own analyst and to the analytic process.
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Meg Harris Williams
Introduction and required reading
1. (1895) Why history?
2. (1900) The spiral of method and data (Studies on Hysteria)
3. (1901) The crystallization of the method dream analysis (Dora)
4. (1905) Freud’s theory of sexuality
5. (1909) The case history of Little Hans (infantile neurosis)
6. (1909) The Rat Man (obsessional neurosis)
7. (1910) The Leonardo paper (narcissism)
8. (1911) The Schreber case (inner world)
9. (1914) Mourning and Melancholia (identification processes)
10. (1918) The Wolf Man (the primal scene)
11. (1919) The child being beaten (the perversions)
About the Author :
Donald Meltzer (1923–2004) was born in New York and studied medicine at Yale. After practising as a psychiatrist specialising in children and families, he moved to England to have analysis with Melanie Klein in the 1950s, and for some years was a training analyst with the British Society. He worked with both adults and children, and was innovative in the treatment of autistic children; in the treatment of children he worked closely with Esther Bick and Martha Harris whom he later married. He taught child psychiatry and psychoanalytic history at the Tavistock Clinic. He also took a special scholarly interest in art and aesthetics, based on a lifelong love of art. Meltzer taught widely and regularly in many countries, in Europe, Scandinavia, and North and South America, and his books have been published in many languages and continue to be increasingly influential in the teaching of psychoanalysis.
His first book, The Psychoanalytical Process, was published by Heinemann in 1967 and was received with some suspicion (like all his books) by the psychoanalytic establishment. Subsequent books were published by Clunie Press for the Roland Harris Educational Trust which he set up together with Martha Harris (now the Harris Meltzer Trust). The Process was followed by Sexual States of Mind in 1973, Explorations in Autism in 1975; The Kleinian Development in 1978 (his lectures on Freud, Klein and Bion given to students at the Tavistock); Dream Life in 1984; The Apprehension of Beauty in 1988 (with Meg Harris Williams); and The Claustrum in 1992.
