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(1990). Journal of Analytical Psychology, 35:348

Astor, J. (London). ‘A conversation with Dr Donald Meltzer’. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 15, 1, 1989.

Richard Rusbridger

In this interview Donald Meltzer begins by describing the background to his interest in the psychoanalysis of children. He says that he regrets the lessening of interest in child analysis, and sees the Kleinian interest in the treatment of psychotic patients as having been, in contrast, a blind alley which produced disappointing results.

He is doubtful about the value of regression or reconstruction in analysis. He describes his preferred stance in child analysis as one of observation, thought and talking rather than of playing with the child and speaks about the overriding importance of the truthful observation and record of experience. This can be covered up but not destroyed, and can be recovered as, by implication, in an analysis. Truthfulness can be distorted in a number of ways, particularly when in a state of projective identification with an object. This distorts the meaning of everything, as well as leading, for example, to claustrophobic anxieties.

Meltzer speaks about adol

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