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The drawing book belonging to Luca, one of the patients who was the inspiration for this paper. It is significant that he underwent his second psychoanalytical treatment with me.
Child psychoanalysis: two «godmothers,” two worlds. Sigmund Freud's work was sufficiently vast as to account for the different roots of the two main doctrinal branches which have dominated the field of child psychoanalysis: on one side that inspired by the work of Anna Freud, and on the other that linked to the theories of Melanie Klein. To gain a full understanding of the value of the contributions of these two «godmothers» we must integrate the divergent and conflictual aspects of their two approaches.
Anna Freud was convinced that the work of interpreting the child's unconscious material was useless - if not destructive - with the exception of certain cases in which the defences and the ability to tolerate anxiety were sufficiently solid. In this sense she considered a period of building up a positive relationship with the young patient of fundamental importance, thus becoming the promoter of a model aimed at developing the resources of the Ego that would allow for a gradual introduction of interpretations which may potentially cause anxiety. In addition, she hypothesized