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Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the Kleinian Tradition

Edited by Stanley Ruszczynski and Sue Johnson, Karnac Books, London, 1999, pp 197, £19.95

This set of papers from members of the British Association of Psychotherapists demonstrates the vitality of the ‘Kleinian Tradition’ in work with adult patients. It is a picture of work from outside the inner circle of Kleinians in London. And it thus indicates how the concepts have fared in their transport into everyday psychotherapy.

There is here a thorough immersion in contemporary Kleinian thought and practice; the communicative aspects of projective identification (containing), the conceptualisation of parts of the person and their structure as organisations of defence, the vicissitudes of knowledge especially in its Oedipal context, and a close attention to the texture of the transference-countertransference relationship. These faithfully reflect the developments of the Klein group in the British psychoAnalytical Society over the last 50 years. These papers demonstrate a serious use of them in clinical practice with a wide variety of patients commonly seen in contemporary psychotherapy…. The book represents a very accurate single source for the wide spectrum of Kleinian ideas that are currently in use. It is therefore an extremely useful single source for these ideas and examples of clinical practice, useful for teaching purposes and also for others seeking to know the fate of Melanie Klein’s remarkable additions to Freudian theories.

  Bob Hinshelwood

This collection of clinical essays by a group of psychotherapists who are firmly committed to a psychoanalytic approach in their work can be thoroughly recommended. The different authors show how particular psychoanalytic theories they personally value find a place in their clinical work. The editors have organised the book admirably so that the individual contributions collectively give an overview of Kleinian theory and the recent theoretical contributions of the so-called 'Contemporary Kleinians of London'.  

What pleases me about these essays is the accuracy and clarity of the theoretical account and the vividness of the clinical understanding. Through the brief introduction and eight carefully integrated essays an interested psychotherapist learning the business and wanting to know what this 'school of thought' is about will find in this book a clear, non-textbook account with real clinical relevance. Other more experienced psychotherapists will find the book helpful, stimulating and challenging. The authors all demonstrate that 'thinking what you are doing' is the lifeblood of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.

  Ron Britton

Copyright © 1999 The British Psychoanalytical Society & Institute of Psychoanalysis, London.

Copyright © 2000 The British Psychoanalytical Society & Institute of Psychoanalysis, London.

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