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The first time I heard a presentation by James Grotstein, I turned to a companion and asked, How does he keep all that mind in one brain! Grotstein had a command of psychoanalytic theory and was able to guide his listeners, students, and colleagues through the complexities of applying theories clinically. He brought from London Kleinian ideas of the working of the inner life of unconscious phantasy, including an expanded view of projective identification, to California, setting off conflicts and controversies. Later, his analytic work with Wilfred Bion sparked Grotstein's analytic work with Wilfred Bion sparked Grotstein's creativity, and his thinking became dominated by a side of psychoanalysis that might be considered more mystical than scientific.
Annie Reiner has edited a collection of essays in honor of Grotstein's work. The authors include Michael Eigen, Albert Mason, Thomas Ogden, and others whose work has been published in Portuguese, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, or other languages, demonstrating the international influence of Grotstein's work. The essays almost all are based on discussion of clinical situations, so a reader who is not familiar with Grotstein's way of thinking will see his ideas in action, not only in theoretical discussions.
The first essay, by Joseph Aguayo, is not clinically focused but outlines the development of Grotstein's work beginning with the conflicts he encountered with the dominant analytic culture when he introduced Melanie Klein's concepts to the analytic community of southern California. Along with Arthur Malin, Grotstein introduced Kleinian theory to an American analytic culture dominated by ego psychology. Grotstein and Malin then “were part of a tide that began a turn away from ego psychology and—along with others such as Harold Searles, Frieda Fromm-Reichman, and John Rosen—began to interest themselves and others in innovative treatment approaches to the psychotically disturbed patient (p. 3). Aguayo portrays Grotstein as an i